NU-SAF-125 — STOP WORK AUTHORITY

Tier 2/3 — Procedure + Field Card · Rev DRAFT · Owner: Owner (Adam) Parent: NU-SAF-100 §4. This is the standalone version the register promised (NU-GOV-000 §4.1). Once issued, NU-SAF-100 §4 points here at its next rev — nothing gets reprinted (NU-GOV-000 §2.3).

THE GATE

Anyone says "STOP WORK" — everything stops. No argument on the spot. Work restarts only when the person who owns that hazard clears it, and the stop goes on the DFR.

That is the whole document. Everything below is what those three sentences mean.

1. THE RULE

Any Nova employee — first-day laborer to Owner — can stop any task, at any time, for any reason, without asking permission. Not just their own task. Any task, any crew, any site.

• You don't need to be sure. You don't need to be right. You need to be uneasy.
• A stop that turns out unnecessary is a good stop. Calling it wrong costs an hour. Not calling it costs a man. We would rather log ten stops that were nothing than miss the one that wasn't.
• Nobody is ever pointed, written up, sent home, razzed, or quietly scheduled off the good crew for calling stop work. Federal law says the same thing (OSH Act §11(c), 29 U.S.C. 660(c)) — and, separately, retaliation for reporting an injury or illness is barred by 29 CFR 1904.35(b)(1)(iv) — but at Nova the rule is older than the citation: it's how we already run bores.

2. THE WORDS AND WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

1. Say it out loud: "STOP WORK." Those words, that volume. No hand signals, no hinting, no "hey, maybe we should..."
2. Everything stops. Machine down, hands off the work, men stepped back to safe ground. On a rig, that means rods stop turning where they are.
3. No argument on the spot. Nobody debates a stop while the hazard is live. Make it safe first. Talk after everything is stopped — that conversation is welcome, and it happens with the machines down.
4. Crew Lead is told immediately. If it isn't resolved right there, the Crew Lead calls the Supervisor and posts it in the crew WhatsApp group per NU-GOV-004 — regardless of whether the call connects.
5. It gets written on the DFR (§4). Every stop, including the ones that turned out to be nothing.

3. WHO RESTARTS THE WORK

The person who called the stop does not have to defend it — and does not have to be the one who clears it. The restart belongs to whoever owns that hazard in the relevant SOP, and the fix is shown to the person who called the stop before anything moves again.

One rule behind the table: the restart never belongs to the person feeling the production pressure. That's why it's the hazard's owner and not the Crew Lead watching the footage count.

4. THE RECORD (Tier 4 — one line on the DFR)

Every gate names its record. This gate's record is a line on that day's DFR, written by the Crew Lead:

STOP WORK · [time] · called by [name] · what they saw · what changed · cleared by [name/role] · back to work [time]

• When the stop caught something that could have hurt a man or hit a utility, it also goes in as a near-miss under NU-SAF-121, same day. A rising near-miss count is a good number (NU-SAF-100 §11) — it means people are talking.
• A stop that turned out to be nothing still gets the DFR line. The log is how we prove the culture exists when a prequal or an underwriter asks.

5. THIS IS ALREADY HOW NOVA WORKS

This page invents nothing. It collects stop-work rules the library already has and gives the field one name for all of them:

• The Locator's stop. "An unmarked or unclear utility stops the job, and nobody overrules the Locator on safety" — that sentence has been in NU-FLD-200 since Rev 1.0, and the rig does not move until the Crossing Sheet is signed (NU-FLD-220 Phase 1).
• The red tag. A red-tagged machine does not roll, period — and nobody pulls someone else's tag (NU-FLT-300, NU-GOV-006 Card 05-A). That is stop work for machines, already enforced.
• The bore. The HDD Operator training book teaches it word for word: "Nobody has ever been in trouble here for stopping a bore. People have been fired for not stopping one."
• Day one. The Day 1–2 book promises every new hire he'll never be in trouble for doing the safe thing and speaking up (NU-PPL-405 / New Hire Guide).

Stop Work Authority is those four promises, extended from utilities, machines, and bores to everything.

6. TEETH (NU-PPL-403)

• Calling stop work is never a points event. Not ever, not for anything, including a stop that was wrong.
• Retaliation against a stop is Owner-level discipline. Any lead or supervisor who points, punishes, reassigns, or leans on a man for stopping work answers to the Owner directly — same shelf as covering up a utility strike, which NU-PPL-403 already makes zero-tolerance. [Adam: NU-PPL-403 needs this line added at its next rev — approve the wording]
• Ignoring or overriding a live stop — telling a crew to keep working through one — is treated as working through a known hazard, not a judgment call.

7. NEVER

• Never argue with a live stop while the hazard is live.
• Never let a stop count against anyone's record, right or wrong.
• Never restart before the hazard's owner clears it and shows the caller the fix.
• Never enter a trench or excavation without a named competent person's clearance — no competent person named means the Supervisor cannot clear that entry, per NU-SAF-107 §2.
• Never skip the DFR line, even on a stop that turned out to be nothing.

THE CARD (Tier 3 — print, laminate, one per truck)

STOP WORK

Anyone. Any reason. Any crew. Say the words: "STOP WORK."

1. Everything stops. Machine down, hands off, step back.
2. No argument on the spot. Talk after it's stopped.
3. Tell the Crew Lead. He calls the Supervisor if it isn't fixed right there.
4. Restart comes from the hazard's owner — Locator for locates, competent person for the trench, Supervisor for everything else.
5. Crew Lead writes it on the DFR.

A stop that turns out to be nothing is a GOOD stop. Nobody has ever been in trouble here for stopping a bore. People have been fired for not stopping one.

[Adam: approve adding this card to the NU-GOV-006 Card Deck so it prints with the rest]

DONE WHEN

A stop is closed when: everything stopped the moment the words were said · the hazard's owner cleared the restart and showed the caller the fix · the DFR line is written · a near-miss went to NU-SAF-121 if the stop caught something real · and the person who called it heard "good stop" out loud, in front of the crew.

OPEN ITEMS — WHAT THIS DOCUMENT NEEDS FROM ADAM

1. Approve the NU-PPL-403 line (§6): retaliation against a stop = Owner-level discipline, same shelf as covering up a utility strike. Goes in at 403's next rev.
2. Name the excavation competent person. Open since NU-GOV-000 Part 6 and NU-SAF-100 §3. Until named, the trench row in §3 defaults to the Supervisor for everything except entry itself — entry into the excavation stays prohibited under NU-SAF-107 §2 regardless of who clears the stop.
3. Approve the card into NU-GOV-006 and the print/laminate run — one per truck, next to the pocket cards.
4. Point NU-SAF-100 §4 here at its next rev (one-line change; no reprint per NU-GOV-000 §2.3).
5. [Adam: want a stop-work toolbox talk added to the NU-SAF-104 52-week schedule? It has no slot today]
6. [Adam: want NU-PPL-403's zero-tolerance list broadened to cover hiding any safety incident — injury, near-miss, unsafe condition — not just utility strikes? Today it only names the strike cover-up.]

NU-SAF-125 · Rev DRAFT · Nova Underground · Parent: NU-SAF-100 §4 · Register: NU-GOV-000 · Uncontrolled when printed.