Lone workers are listed as those workers who either work unsupervised or have no direct supervision. There are an estimated 8 million workers that are classified as lone workers, representing nearly a quarter of the UK workforce.
Lone worker roles are many and varied and include traffic wardens, taxi drivers, lorry drivers, bus drivers, petrol station attendants and estate agents.
Other lone worker situations include those:
- Who work in businesses with no other employees on-premise or work in an establishment where they operate separately from others.
- Who work for a business where they have to work away from the base of operations of the company, for example service engineers and maintenance and repair staff.
- Who work hours outside of standard office hours, for example security guards and cleaners.
The Covid-19 pandemic has also created many more lone workers with the work from home policy. Risk assessing lone workers is essential as they face different hazards and risks than group workers.
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