I noticed this morning the new baker left about 7 sticks of butter on the counter to thaw until she started her shift later that night. Obviously I put the butter back in the cooler and left her a note saying we can't thaw butter at room temperature (certainly not for ~12 hours).
Other than the packaging which states to keep it refrigerated, I could not find anything in the legislation regarding a safe procedure for leaving butter out so it is soft enough to work with.
Also, I'm aware the water activity of butter is so low there isn't a good chance that pathogenic growth will occur.