Employee Responsibilities

The employee also has responsibilities for understanding machine guarding and the safe operation of machines. If an employee recognizes a hazardous situation that needs to be addressed, it is his or her responsibility to bring it to the attention of the employer. Acting on such instances not only keeps that worker out of harm's way, but improves the safety and confidence of other workers as well. All employees must take appropriate measures to keep themselves safe by using the necessary protective clothing and equipment while on the job.

It is also the duty of all employees to avoid tampering with safeguards. This includes disabling, bypassing, and even removing measures that have been put into place by the employer or manufacturer of the equipment. Tampering with equipment safeguards is especially dangerous if more than one person operates a machine on a regular basis. If another operator does not know that the safeguards have been modified, that employee may rely on equipment that has been tampered with and in turn suffer serious injury or even death.

To learn more about Machine Guarding visit our Machine Guarding Safety Online Training web page.