The short version
- Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act - the General Duty Clause - requires a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious harm. It is the hook OSHA uses for lone-work and workplace-violence citations.
- One OSHA standard addresses lone work explicitly: 29 CFR 1915.84 (shipyard employment) requires employees working alone to be checked on at regular intervals.
- OSHA's workplace violence guidance for healthcare, late-night retail and social services sets the expected controls for public-facing lone work.
- Roughly half the states run their own OSHA-approved plans, some with stricter requirements.
- Work-related fatalities must be reported to OSHA within 8 hours; in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and eye losses within 24 hours.
What the law says
The General Duty Clause, section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, requires each employer to furnish employment free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm. Workplace violence against staff who work alone with the public, and medical emergencies with no one to help, are both recognized hazards in OSHA's enforcement history.
29 CFR 1915.84 - "Working alone" - requires that whenever an employee is working alone in a confined space or isolated location, the employer must account for them at regular intervals and at the end of the job or shift. It formally applies to shipyard employment, but it is the clearest statement in US regulation of what accounting for a lone worker looks like, and it is regularly cited as the benchmark practice.
OSHA's guidelines for preventing workplace violence - for healthcare and social service workers, and for late-night retail - recommend engineering and administrative controls including alarm systems, check-in procedures and training. Guidance is not a standard, but it defines "recognized hazard" and "feasible abatement" in General Duty Clause cases.
What it means in practice
- Identify roles where employees work alone: home health visits, late-night retail, field service, property management, utilities.
- Run a documented hazard assessment per role. Our free lone worker risk assessment template structures it.
- Establish a check-in system with defined intervals and a documented escalation when a check-in is missed - the 1915.84 model.
- For public-facing or higher-risk roles, provide a way to summon help immediately: panic alarms, monitored safety devices or apps.
- Train workers on the hazards, de-escalation and the procedures, and document the training.
- Record incidents on the OSHA 300 log where recordable, and feed them back into the assessment.
State plans and local rules
Twenty-two states run OSHA-approved plans covering private employers, and some go further than federal OSHA on this topic - several states have workplace-violence prevention requirements for healthcare, and some regulate late-night retail work. If you operate in state-plan states, check the state rules; the federal floor is not the ceiling.
When something goes wrong
Report a work-related fatality to OSHA within 8 hours, and any in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Recordable injuries and illnesses go on the OSHA 300 log. Our incident report form template includes the reporting check.