In brief
A night guard or an operator on a one-person shift may go unnoticed for hours if they fall or are taken ill. There is no separate regulation specific to lone working; the risk is addressed within the risk assessment and the emergency plan. In practice, three elements are needed: a list of tasks that must not be done alone, a regular contact system with written steps for when no response comes, and an emergency chain in which the alert actually reaches someone who can respond.
Lone worker safety: who counts as "alone"?
A lone worker is a person who does their work in a place where no other employee can see or hear them; lone worker safety is the arrangement that ensures something happening to this person is noticed and that help reaches them. A factory's night guard, a technician monitoring the boiler room at the weekend, an operator running a line alone on the night shift and a warehouse employee counting stock alone in a cold store all fit this definition. Even if there are other people in the building, a person working in a separate building or a closed room is in practice alone.
Working alone essentially raises a single question: if this person falls, faints or is attacked, how long will it take to notice, and who will reach them? This article explains how to build an answer to that question for night guard safety and one-person shifts at a fixed workplace. For the other risks of security guards, see our article on OHS risks for private security guards.
What does the legislation say about working alone?
There is no separate regulation specific to lone working. The obligation arises from general provisions:
- Law No. 6331 Art. 4: The employer ensures employees' work-related health and safety; Art. 10: carries out or arranges for a risk assessment.
- Art. 11/1-ç: The employer makes arrangements to ensure liaison with external organisations, in particular on first aid, emergency medical care, rescue and firefighting. For a lone worker, this means how the alert will reach the outside world.
- Regulation on Emergencies Art. 11/8: The shift pattern is taken into account when designating support staff and their deputies. If one person works at night, the fact that this person is both the employee and the only "team" must be addressed explicitly in the plan.
- Labour Law No. 4857 Art. 69: Night work may not exceed 7.5 hours. The shift plan for night guards and night operators is built around this limit; details are in our article on night work and the 7.5-hour rule.
Tasks that must not be done alone
The first output of the risk assessment is the list of tasks that will not be given to a person working alone. In these tasks, if something goes wrong, the person has no or very little chance of rescuing themselves. The list varies by workplace; the following tasks are on the list in most workplaces:
- Confined space entry (tanks, silos, wells, manholes); for details, see confined space entry
- Work at height and reaching the ceiling with a ladder
- Live electrical work and work inside panels
- Clearing faults on machinery, removing jammed parts, work done with a guard open; for isolating and locking out energy, see LOTO lockout and tagout
- Hot work, transferring hazardous chemicals and responding to large spills
For an operator working alone at night, the rule should be simple: if the machine stops, the operator leaves it in a safe position and waits for the morning or a second person. The rule for the guard is similar: they do not investigate a suspicious situation alone; they report it first.
Regular check-in calls: how is the contact routine set up?
Regular contact means the lone worker saying "I'm OK" at set intervals, and a pre-written process kicking in when this report does not come. For the system to work, four things must be clear.
1. Interval: The interval is set according to the risk assessment. There is no fixed period in the legislation. The table below is an example:
| Nature of the work | Example task | Example contact interval | Additional measure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low risk | Monitoring in a control room, duty in a hut | Hourly | Start and end of shift report |
| Medium risk | Patrols, stock counts, one-person line | Every 30 minutes | Man-down alarm |
| High risk | Cold store, boiler room, noisy or isolated section | Every 15 minutes or continuous monitoring | Alarm + access to a second person |
| Task that must not be done alone | Confined space, live work | Not done alone | Second person mandatory |
2. The monitoring person: Who will receive the reports? It can be a shift supervisor at another site, the security company's monitoring centre or a manager on duty. What matters is that this person is awake, reachable and has the authority to start a response.
3. If there is no response: The process is written step by step. For example: the report is late → the monitoring person calls immediately → if there is no answer, calls a second time within a few minutes → if there is still no answer, sends the nearest staff member or the security team to the site → if the person cannot be reached or is found injured, 112 is called. The timing of the steps and who will call must be in writing, and the monitoring person must know them by heart.
4. Records: Every report is recorded with the time. The record both shows that the system works and reveals the causes of delays.
Man-down alarms and other devices
Regular contact works while the person is conscious. In situations such as a fall, fainting or a heart attack, the person cannot report; this is where devices that give an automatic alert come in. A man-down alarm usually offers the following features together:
- No-motion detection: If there is no movement for a set time, the device first warns the wearer and, if they do not respond, sends an alarm.
- Tilt detection: If the device stays in a horizontal position, it treats this as a fall.
- SOS button: The person raises the alarm manually in the event of an attack or danger.
- Location information: In large sites, shows where the person is.
Pay attention to the following when choosing and installing a device:
- Coverage: The signal should be tested in basements, cold stores, metal-structured sections and remote corners of the site. A place outside the coverage area is outside the system.
- Recipient: The alarm goes to someone who can respond. An alarm going to the phone of a sleeping manager does not count as a system.
- Maintenance: Charging, batteries and function tests are carried out regularly; test dates are recorded.
- False alarms: A device that gives false alarms too often stops being taken seriously after a while. The no-motion time is adjusted to the work.
Radios, landlines and camera monitoring also support the system but are not enough on their own: if nobody is watching the camera, it does not see the person who fell, only records it.
Reaching help in an emergency
The alarm has reached the right person; now help needs to reach the person. In a site with its gates locked at night, this second step is often forgotten.
- Access: How will the ambulance crew enter the site? Who has the key or code to the main gate? In OIZs (organised industrial zones), is there an arrangement agreed in advance with the zone's security?
- Directions: The address to give to 112 and directions within the site should be in writing. On a large site, "the boiler room" alone is not enough as a direction.
- First aid: A lone worker cannot give first aid to themselves. Who the nearest first aider is, and how long it would take them to arrive, is included in the plan. If there is an automated external defibrillator on site, its location and access without a code are checked; see cardiac arrest at work and AEDs.
- Fire: One person does not try to put out a fire; they raise the alarm, move to safety and direct the fire brigade. For sites within an OIZ, our article on emergency coordination with the OIZ fire brigade provides guidance.
Checklist for guards and single operators
| Check | Night guard | One-person shift operator |
|---|---|---|
| Are tasks not to be done alone in writing? | No intervention alone in suspicious situations | No fault clearing, confined space or work at height |
| Has a contact interval been set? | Matched to patrol points | According to the line's risk |
| Is there a man-down alarm, and is it tested? | Especially on patrol | In noisy and isolated sections |
| Who receives the alarm? | Monitoring centre or manager on duty | Shift supervisor or monitoring centre |
| Is access for help to the site planned? | Gate, key, directions | Gate, key, directions |
| Has their health been assessed? | Chronic illness and fitness for night work | Chronic illness and fitness for night work |
| Has the risk of violence been addressed? | Theft and assault scenario | Usually low; control of external doors |
An employee with a chronic illness working alone at night is assessed together with the workplace physician. For measures against the risk of assault on guards, see our article on violence against employees. For night arrangements in warehouse and logistics sites, see our logistics and warehousing sector page.
In Bursa's OIZs and at sites in the surrounding provinces, we address sections guarded by one person at night or run by a single operator as a separate heading within the risk assessment, and incorporate the contact and alarm routine into the emergency plan. You can use our OHS calendar tool to track test dates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is working alone prohibited?
No. There is no general prohibition in the legislation; however, the risk assessment may find it unacceptable for certain tasks to be done alone. Tasks such as confined space entry and live electrical work should not be given to a person working alone.
How often should regular check-in calls be made?
There is no fixed period in the legislation. The interval is set according to the risk of the work and how long the person could go unnoticed. For risky work, the interval is shortened and an automatic alarm is added.
Is a man-down alarm mandatory?
There is no requirement in the legislation that names it. If the risk assessment shows that the person would be unable to report in the event of a fall or fainting, a device that gives an automatic alert is one of the most suitable ways of controlling this risk.
Can a night guard be designated as support staff?
Yes. In workplaces with fewer than 10 employees, a single support person is sufficient for all of the firefighting, rescue and protection teams (Regulation on Emergencies, Art. 11/4). However, what a guard working alone at night can actually do is limited: raise the alarm, call and direct external teams, and get to safety. This role must be written clearly in the emergency plan.
A risk assessment that identifies and scores hazards on site, links each measure to an owner and a date, and has a clear renewal schedule.
Bursa SİSTEMER OSGB Technical Team — written from the field experience of our OHS specialists and workplace physicians. Legal information is valid as of the publication/update date; contact us for an assessment specific to your business.