Legal Guidance to Comply with OSHA Hazardous Energy Control Regulations

December 16, 2025 | Injury Care

An employment law attorney offers helpful tips during a WorkCare webinar on hazardous energy control programs, including guidance on lockout-tagout, employee training, and periodic inspections to ensure OSHA compliance, reduce exposure risk, and save lives.

Control of hazardous energy in general industry (29 CFR 1910.147) is one of the most frequently cited OSHA standards, even though employers can reduce the risk for energy-related accidents, injuries, and fatalities by implementing a comprehensive prevention program.

OSHA requires controls including machine and equipment lockout-tagout procedures, employee training, and periodic inspections in workplaces that rely on energy sources for production. Electricians, machine operators, craft and utility workers, and employees who maintain and service equipment are among millions of U.S. employees with risk of exposure to uncontrolled stored energy sources.

During a recent WorkCare webinar, Legal Insights to Strengthen Your Hazardous Energy Control Program, Aaron Gelb, a partner in the employment law firm Conn Maciel Carey, identified short-sightedness rather than negligence as a common contributing factor in preventable power-related injuries and fatalities. An expert on lockout-tagout, machine guarding, and other machine safety regulations, Gelb advises employers on legal matters involving safety complaints, OSHA rapid response investigations, and contesting, settling, and litigating citations

“Sadly, I have worked on cases involving fatalities, amputations, evulsions, and other serious injuries that are related to the use of machinery,” he said. “What I find in a lot of instances is a disconnect between what senior leadership thinks is going on and what is actually getting done in the warehouse, on the shop floor, or out at a job site.”

Why This Matters

A comprehensive hazardous energy control program helps employers reduce legal liability exposure, lower medical care and insurance costs, avoid OSHA citations and fines, and – most importantly – “protect the lives limbs, and digits of the people who are performing servicing and maintenance or working on or near equipment that is being serviced,” Gelb said.

A control program that is periodically refreshed and consistently enforced improves employee engagement and retention by demonstrating that management cares about workforce health and safety. A lukewarm effort to prevent exposure to hazardous energy sends the opposite message. Gelb has observed that employees who feel safe on the job are less inclined to file complaints that may prompt an OSHA inspection.

According to Gelb, OSHA issues almost twice as many citations for violations of Section (c)(4), energy control procedures, than it does for any other part of 1910.47. (The next most frequently cited section is 1910.147(c)(6), periodic inspection.) Section 4 requires employers to establish a comprehensive control program with detailed lockout-tagout procedures “to ensure that before any employee performs any servicing or maintenance on a machine or equipment where the unexpected energizing, start up or release of stored energy could occur and cause injury, the machine or equipment is isolated from the energy source, and rendered inoperative.”

Fines for non-compliance can exceed $250,000 in significant cases, Gelb said. For a willful citation, the penalty can be $150,000 for every employee who has not received adequate training. Repeat violations can lead to designation as a severe violator, mandatory follow-up workplace inspections, and reputational damage. Failure to remediate can result in criminal prosecution.

What Can Employers Do?

Gelb encourages employers to renew their knowledge of applicable regulations and continuously update procedures to correspond with existing hazards. He said OSHA officials often tell him that well-documented procedures are the heart of an effective hazardous energy control program.

Written procedure should include sections on scope and purpose, authorizations, and the rules and techniques that must be followed by employees with exposure risk. This applies to standard operations and any workplace-specific hazards that require customized protective measures. Procedures should be easy for employees to access.

Gelb also recommends focusing on and correcting any deficiencies in machine-specific procedures. “If OSHA comes on site after an incident, in response to a complaint, or as part of an emphasis program inspection simply because your company’s name was randomly drawn off a list of employers in your covered NAICS code, they will ask for a series of machine-specific procedures,” he explained. “If those procedures are poorly drafted, inaccurate, don’t identify the energy sources, and so on, they’re going to take a hard look at your track record with periodic inspections.”

All aspects of a company’s hazardous energy control program should be compared with provisions in 29 CFR 1910.147 to ensure that they are aligned and accurately reflect machine-specific conditions. When procedures are “rock solid,” Gelb said, OSHA inspectors can refer to them when they interview employees to evaluate their competency and the thoroughness of a company’s periodic inspections.

“Every procedure must be reviewed on a rolling 12-month basis,” Gelb said. “You don’t want to wait 11 months before starting a review and find yourself asking, ‘How do we fix this?’”

More Compliance Tips

Here are some additional tips provided by Gelb during the webinar:

Customize training: Do not rely on generic training materials or take shortcuts. Customize hands-on training for the environment. Record training duration, topics, locations, and employee completions; these records can be used as a reference in the event of an accident or inspection. All employees should be trained on lockout-tagout procedures that apply to their specific job. Training to authorize maintenance and repair personnel to work on machines typically involves more complexity. Adapt training for employees with limited proficiency in English.

Protect production workers: Production processes are covered under 1910 Subpart O, mechanical power-transmission apparatus, machinery, and machine guarding. Under limited circumstances, lockout-tagout provisions in 1910.147 may apply to machine guarding during production. Machine guards used to prevent injuries should not be removed or bypassed.

Assess routine servicing: Routinely performed minor servicing is allowed during operations as long as certain safeguards are in place. Minor servicing may involve the use of specially designed tools, remote devices, interlocked barrier guards, local disconnects, or employee-operated control switches. Only authorized personnel should perform routine maintenances and fixes like unjamming equipment. Logout-tagout rules apply when minor servicing does not comply with OSHA’s exception under Subpart O.

Be equipment-specific: When writing or revising a procedure, be as specific as possible for each piece of equipment. Describe how energy sources are dissipated and controlled – they may be isolated, blocked, or secured. Provide step-by-instructions for troubleshooting, shutting down, releasing stored energy, positioning locks, and verifying controls. Be aware that hydraulic, pneumatic, gravity, and heat energy sources are harder to verify than electrical power.

Confer with frontline workers: Employees who operate equipment and do service and maintenance tasks can provide useful insights on control measures. However, employers, not workers, are responsible for deciding what is hazardous.

How WorkCare Can Help

WorkCare supports compliance with hazardous energy control standards and provides other injury prevention interventions in industries with exposure risks. Our programs include:

Incident Prevention – WorkCare injury prevention specialists advise employers and employees on first aid for minor injuries, musculoskeletal disorder prevention, and ways to manage physical discomfort on the job before OSHA-recordable medical care is needed.

Occupational Health Screening – We facilitate access to qualified local occupational health providers for medical surveillance exams, DOT physicals, drug tests, fitness-for-work assessments, and more.

Injury Care – Our 24/7 telehealth triage team provides immediate injury care guidance based on best medical practices.

On-site Clinical Services – Our on-onsite occupational health providers are trained to manage first response and treat injuries that do not require emergency transport.