The Contractor Who Stayed Past His Window
It is 21:40 on a Tuesday at a distribution centre with a single staffed reception point and a vehicle gate controlled by a guard. A refrigeration contractor, badge number C-114, was signed in at 14:00 to service two cold-store units and was given a work window ending at 18:00. The reception log shows no sign-out. The guard on the vehicle gate recognises C-114's van parked in the visitor bay, but the bay is outside camera coverage. The guard calls reception; the receptionist says the contractor's escort, a maintenance technician, clocked off at 17:30 and is not answering his phone. The cold-store corridor is a restricted zone: no lone working after 20:00, two-person rule for compressor rooms, and all contractor movement must be escorted. The guard can see a light on in the corridor through a high window and hears intermittent metallic banging. A second guard is on a 30-minute patrol of the yard and will not return for 12 minutes. The site has no police response agreement; local police average 18 minutes.
1. What should the guard do in the first five minutes, and in what order?
Read the worked answer
The guard's first duty is to avoid creating a second unaccounted person in a restricted zone. Sequence:
- Do not enter the corridor alone. The two-person rule and the no-lone-working rule apply to guards too; entering alone converts one unknown into two.
- Confirm identity and location from a safe position. Call out from the corridor entrance, identify himself, and ask C-114 to state his name, badge number, and location. A cooperative contractor answers; silence or evasion changes the assessment.
- Recall the patrol guard by radio and hold him at the reception point rather than letting him finish the route. Twelve minutes is too long when a light and banging indicate activity.
- Notify the shift supervisor and ask whether the contractor's work order was extended; the supervisor may know of an approved overrun.
- Preserve the log. Note the missing sign-out, the escort's 17:30 clock-off, the time of first observation, and the light and noise. Do not alter the log.
The reasoning: the banging is consistent with legitimate compressor work and with someone trapped or tampering. The guard cannot resolve that ambiguity by recall of policy alone; he must gather the cheapest discriminating information (a voice response) before escalating physically.
2. The contractor answers, says he is fine, and explains he is 'just finishing up' because the job ran long. He refuses to leave until the compressors are stable. How should the guard handle this, and what should be documented?
Read the worked answer
Cooperative but non-compliant is the common middle case. The guard should:
- Escort, don't command alone. Tell C-114 that the corridor cannot be occupied unescorted after 20:00 and that the guard will now act as escort from the corridor entrance. This satisfies the two-person rule and keeps him observable.
- Set a hard stop. Ask how long 'stable' takes. If it is more than a few minutes, escalate to the supervisor for a decision, because the guard lacks authority to extend a work window.
- Do not physically remove him. Physical intervention against a contractor doing safety-related work creates liability and injury risk; the correct lever is supervisory authority and, if refused, suspension of the work order.
- Check the compressors are actually safe. If he says they are unstable, that is a safety issue for the site, not just an access issue; the supervisor and maintenance on-call need to know.
Documentation should record: badge and name, original window, actual departure time, who authorised any extension, the escort's identity and absence, the reason given, the guard's actions and times, and whether the two-person rule was restored. Note the escort's failure separately as a procedural breach, since the root cause is the 17:30 clock-off without handover.