WAC 296-36-132   Lock attendants.  (1) Whenever any workman is in a man lock or in a working chamber to which the man lock affords direct or indirect access, each working man lock shall be in the charge of a competent lock attendant who shall perform no other duties except to operate the lock and shall be employed the same number of hours as the other employees working in compressed air. The lock attendant shall control the maximum rate of compressions and shall perform all decompressions except where such compressions and decompressions are automatically regulated, but in such case the lock attendant shall have means to determine the pressures within the lock and working chamber at any time, and shall have also a timing device and such manual controls as will enable him to override the automatic mechanism in an emergency.

     (2) Subject to the overall control by the lock attendant of the admission of compressed air into the lock, he may, if so authorized by the appointed physician, allocate to a competent person who is to be compressed in the lock, the duty to regulate from inside the lock the admission of compressed air, and duty to communicate to the lock attendant any complaint of discomfort by a workman in the lock and any report by that workman that the discomfort has ceased.

     (3) Man lock attendants shall be under the direct supervision, control, discipline and training of the appointed physician and each man lock attendant shall be the holder of an unexpired first-aid certificate from the Red Cross, U.S. Bureau of Mines, or the Department of Labor and Industries. Lock attendants shall receive their wage payments directly from the head office of the employer and shall not be carried on or subject to the payroll procedures of the local office. A lock attendant shall not be relieved of his duties or discharged without consulting the appointed physician nor without the physician's assent.



[Rules (Part VI), filed 12/28/62; § 4, filed 3/23/60.]