Your Level 1 SSHO has a family emergency on a Tuesday. Work is scheduled Wednesday. Who can stand in, and for how long?
Under the 15 March 2024 edition of EM 385-1-1 the answer is measured in hours, and the term most people reach for to answer it no longer exists.
The Designated Representative is gone
The Designated Representative was a term in the 30 November 2014 edition. It is not in the current manual. If a safety consultant or a staffing agency offers you a DR to cover an absence, they are working from a superseded document — which is worth knowing about the rest of their advice too.
The rule now
- Up to 24 hours — one day — for something unforeseen or an emergency: a Level 1, 2 or 3 SSHO may be used in the interim, and must be at the site of work at all times when work is being performed.
- Longer than 24 hours off site: an additional or alternate Level 1 SSHO has to be at the site of work, carrying the same roles and responsibilities as the primary.
Note what the first bullet is scoped to: unforeseen or emergency circumstances. It is interim cover for something that happened to you, not a mechanism for planning a week of annual leave around. Planned absence is the second bullet.
What an alternate SSHO is
An alternate SSHO is not a fourth level. It is an employee who meets the contract-required level but is not the primary SSHO, and who carries the same roles and responsibilities. Additional or alternate SSHOs may also be needed for projects with multiple sites, multiple shifts, or simply size — and where they are, the contract says so.
The part that gets missed: an alternate needs their own accepted ENG Form 6282. A designation letter is required for all levels of onsite SSHO, and a new or additional SSHO means a new letter — signed by the corporate safety official and the SSHO, submitted to the contracting officer or COR, and accepted before work is conducted. Designating your cover after the absence starts is the stoppage you were trying to avoid. See ENG Form 6282.
The multi-site case, and the 45-minute rule
There is a separate provision worth knowing if your work is spread out. Where an activity, task or definable feature of work covers multiple sites and has been assessed at a residual risk assessment code of low or medium, any level of SSHO may be appointed for each site more than 45 minutes' travel time from the primary Level 1 SSHO's site of work.
Two conditions, both required: the residual RAC has to be low or medium, and the site has to be more than 45 minutes out. This is not a general licence to cover several sites with one person.
What to do before you need it
- Name the alternate at award and get their ENG Form 6282 accepted alongside the primary's. It costs nothing to have and a start date to not have.
- Check the alternate meets the contract-required level, not just "is a safety person". For a Level 1 contract that means the full Level 1 bar — see SSHO requirements.
- Keep both accepted letters at the site of work.
- Treat 24 hours as a hard edge. If an absence is going to run past a day, the interim cover is not sufficient and an additional or alternate Level 1 must be there.
- Remember the supervision bar. A Level 1 SSHO may not supervise non-safety personnel at the site of work, so your superintendent is not your contingency plan.
Sourced from USACE EM 385-1-1, edition of 15 March 2024 (which supersedes the 30 November 2014 edition) — paragraph 2-2.x for the SSHO levels, 2-3.b for training and experience, 2-4.b for roles and responsibilities, and 2-8.b for designation and site requirements. Reviewed 2026-10-02. Coverage and designation are at 2-8.b(1) and 2-8.b(2).