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Do employers have to supply safety equipment?

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  • 17-06-2011 5:46pm
    #1
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭


    Just a quick question about employment law for anybody who knows more about it than I. Do employers have to supply relevant safety gear? Talking high-vi clothes, steel capped boots, etc. for working in a car park.

    Basically, I work in a well known supermarket part-time and I'm frequently sent to the car park to move trolleys from the road to the store. Never received an ounce of training on proper ways to do this, never given any hi-vis clothes, never given steel capped boots, never given a safety strap to keep the trolleys together (such a thing does exist, I've been told). Sometimes I'm out in the car park as early as 8 in the morning or as late as 10 at night, regardless or weather. Reason I ask is because one day recently I was approached by a man in the car park who flashed an employee badge at me stating "*name*, regional manager for *company name*". He began asking where my high-vis jacket was and I just told him I'd left it in the shop, not wanting to cause anything.

    Anyway, just wondering what the story with this is.


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    #2
    Mrs OBumble
    Registered Users Posts: 25,734 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    Of course they do.

    Not sure that steel caps are necessary for your job, but a hi-vis certainly is.

    You didn't do any favours to yourself by lying, though: it'll be reported as your mistake, rather than managements. TBH, it's never good to lie in work.


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    #3
    d22ontour
    Registered Users Posts: 3,383 ✭✭✭d22ontour


    ELQ wrote: »
    He began asking where my high-vis jacket was and I just told him I'd left it in the shop, not wanting to cause anything.

    The correct answer is... I wasn't issued with one and you should contact the store manager to rectify this.

    Why ask about safety procedures if you are willing to work without at least the basic necessary equipment and would brush off any questioning of it from someone who *flashed* something at you ?
    You want to see someones work identification then you hold it and view it and then ask for drivers license etc to clarify it.If he was a safety inspector, why would lying about safety procedures make your daily job safer for you ? :confused:


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    #4
    donkey balls
    Registered Users Posts: 3,433 ✭✭✭donkey balls


    OP the company would/should have done a risk assesment on the duties that you carry out by the company H&S officer,By them doing this they would have looked at the potential risks to you and provide you with the protective clothing to do the job.


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    #5
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    d22ontour wrote: »
    The correct answer is... I wasn't issued with one and you should contact the store manager to rectify this.

    Why ask about safety procedures if you are willing to work without at least the basic necessary equipment and would brush off any questioning of it from someone who *flashed* something at you ?
    You want to see someones work identification then you hold it and view it and then ask for drivers license etc to clarify it.If he was a safety inspector, why would lying about safety procedures make your daily job safer for you ? :confused:

    Perhaps I should have explained a bit better. I DIDN'T ask to see his work id. He just showed it to me proving who he was. He was a regional manager like I said, so I had never seen him before and he was just explaining who he was. He wasn't a safety inspector. He was a regional area manager.

    And I want to clarify that I had asked my line manager about equipment and all before and was told to speak to a different manager about it. I did and he told me he'd order the necessary equipment, but never did (was a few months ago now). Any time I ask him, he says he has ordered it and there's nothing more he can do if it hasn't arrived.

    Reason for not explaining to the regional manager that I didn't have the stuff was because if I did that, he would have been giving out to my line manager. And it's all well and good for everyone on here to say "Well, that's your line manager's fault and not yours", but ultimately I'm still the one who has to work with said line manager day-in and day-out and I don't want to stir any boats. The person in question isn't reasonable and would have had no problem in holding it against me that I had told a regional manager that my manager essentially hadn't done their job.


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    #6
    doolox
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,350 ✭✭✭doolox


    ..where safety rules are used as a battleground in worker employer relations but it happens all the time. You are going to have to enlist the help of all your trolley moving colleagues in either 1. borrowing a Hi-viz jacket before you do the work. or 2. refusing to do the work until supplied with a hi viz jacket.

    I know in some work arrangements ( ie contract etc..) the worker has to buy and pay for his own equipment and have it in good working order. Nurses have to buy and pay for their uniforms, shoes etc...

    I do not know the cost of such jackets but if it was under a tenner I'd buy one myself to avoid further conflict with the nosy regional Manager and conflict with your careless line manager. It would all depend on the length of time you intend to spend in the job, the money earned and if there are other hassles in the job.


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