Only authorised officials should be allowed to accept work permits. Senior persons, e.g. Engineering Manager of a Department should determine which persons/contractors should be authorised to accept work permits in writing, clearly defining their scope of authority.
The senior persons should not give accepting authority to a person (recipient) unless they are satisfied with the recipient’s competency in:
• Knowledge of work permit procedures.
• Knowledge of the plant and its hazards
Generally speaking, a recipient (Permit receiver) has the following responsibilities:
• They are responsible for ensuring that no work is done and that no persons under their control enter the working area until a work permit has been obtained.
• They are responsible for reading the work permit and ensuring that he/she understands it. If something is not clear on the work permit, he/she must discuss it with the issuer.
• They are responsible for checking that the safe-making actions as laid down in the certificate have actually been met and of satisfying him/her that there are no other safe-making actions which he/she thinks should be taken.
• They are responsible for observing the conditions of the work permit himself and of ensuring that labourers or others under their control sign and understand the conditions of the work permit.
• He/she or any of the people he/she has signed for are responsible, along with the official issuing of the work permit for ensuring that if the conditions under which the work permit was issued change during the course of the job, work will cease, the work permit be withdrawn and a new work permit issued to cover the new conditions.
• They are responsible, when the work is complete, to inform the plant official who accepts the work permit (in some cases it could be the Operator who accepts the job and signs off the work permit accordingly) – that he/she has completed the job and of leaving the workplace in a state that creates no hazard.
• The relief acceptor / receiver must sign both copies of the work permit.
• The original copy must be retained by the tradesman for at least one month.