Your steps on a work permit

High-risk work, such as hot work, work at height or work in a confined space, is done under a work permit. When your safety team names you on a permit, it appears in Employee AZ under Health & Safety › Safety › Permits. There you read what the permit says and take three steps yourself, in this order: confirm your briefing, sign on when you start the work, and sign off when you finish. Your safety team sees on the permit's crew who has taken each step. Nobody else can take your steps for you.

Find your permits

1. In the menu, under Health & Safety, select Safety, then the Permits tab. A number on the tab counts the permits with a step for you to take. My tasks on your Home page lists the same steps, marked On Safety › Permits.

2. Permits that are still current are listed under Work permits I am on. A permit that was closed, cancelled or expired, or whose time has ended, moves to Past permits. Each row shows the permit, its number, My role, its day and hours, where the permit stands and, while signing on applies, Not signed on, Signed on or Signed off.

3. Select the button at the end of the row. It names the step waiting for you: Confirm briefing, Sign on or Sign off. With nothing to do it reads View permit. The permit opens in its own panel.

With no permit, the tab says You are not currently named on any work permit. When your permits cannot be read, it says This could not be loaded right now. Try again in a few minutes, and do not start the work until you have seen the permit. If your safety team takes you off a permit before you sign on, the permit leaves your list.

Read the permit

The panel starts with the facts your safety team recorded: Permit number, Kind of work, When, Where, My role, Authorised by and Issued by. Then come The work and:

• Hazards: what can hurt you in this work. If none are written, the panel says No hazards are written on this permit. Ask whoever issued it before you start.
• Controls in place: what has been done to keep you safe, for example isolation or gas testing. If none are written, it says No controls are written on this permit.
• PPE this work requires: each item is checked against the PPE in use on your PPE tab and marked Issued to you or Not issued to you. An item written in the permit's own words, which the page cannot match to a kind of PPE, is listed without a mark. The permit's row says how many items were not issued to you, and the panel says Do not start this work without the PPE it requires. Ask your supervisor for it. If no PPE is written, it says No PPE is written on this permit.
• If something goes wrong: the permit's emergency procedure, when it has one, and the emergency number to call.

The panel ends with Your steps on this permit: Briefing, Sign on and Sign off, each with its date and time once done, or a line saying when you can take it. The button for the step waiting for you is at the bottom of the panel. To leave without a step, select Close.

The PPE check matches the kinds of PPE recorded as issued to you. If something you were given is marked Not issued to you, ask your supervisor to record it. For the PPE recorded as yours, see Confirm your PPE and ask for a replacement.

Confirm your briefing

Before the work starts, the person in charge goes through the permit with you. You can confirm it once the permit is Approved, Issued or In progress. Before that, the step says You can confirm your briefing once the permit is approved.

1. Select Confirm briefing on the permit's row. Under Briefing the panel says Read this permit with whoever briefs you, then confirm below.

2. Optionally, write the name of the person who briefed you in Who briefed you? (up to 200 characters).

3. Select I was briefed on this permit. The page confirms Your briefing is confirmed. You can sign on once the permit is issued.

The step then shows the date and time you confirmed it and, when you gave one, the name of the person who briefed you.

Sign on to start work

Sign on when you start the work, not before. You can sign on once your briefing is confirmed and the permit is Issued or In progress, until the end of its time under When.

1. Select Sign on on the permit's row. The step says Sign on when you start the work.

2. Check PPE this work requires once more, then select Sign on to start work. If an item is marked Not issued to you, you are asked This permit requires PPE that was not issued to you. Sign on anyway? Do not sign on until you have it.

The page confirms You are signed on. Sign off on this page when you finish or leave the work area. Until you can sign on, the step tells you why. Before your briefing is confirmed it says Confirm your briefing first. When the permit is approved but not issued yet, it says You can sign on once the permit is issued.

Sign off when you finish

Sign off when you finish the work or leave the work area: the step says When you finish or leave the work area.

1. Select Sign off on the permit's row, then Sign off at the bottom of the panel.

2. Confirm when you are asked Sign off this permit? Do it when you finish or leave the work area. The page confirms You are signed off this permit.

You can sign off at any time after you signed on, even after the permit's time has ended or it was suspended or closed. Until you do, the permit keeps a Sign off button, under Past permits if it has finished. Signing off is your last step on that permit: you cannot sign on to it again.

The order and the permit's time

• Each step is taken once, in order, and cannot be undone in Employee AZ. If you took a step by mistake, tell the person in charge of the permit.
• Once the end of the permit's time under When has passed, you can no longer confirm a briefing or sign on. You can still sign off.
• What you can do follows where the permit stands:

If a step is refused

Every step is checked again against the permit when you select it. If it cannot be recorded, nothing is recorded and the page says why: