Health & Safety at work

Guess_Who

Does anyone know what entitlements employees have if health & safety laws are not followed by their employer?

We have recently moved to a premises with no central heating or insulation. We have plug in heaters but the temperature is well below the legal minimum for an office environment.

My boss has said that he will get some insulation but in the meantime where do I stand?

Thanks

brightspark

The legislation is...

Regulation 7 - Room temperature.
7. (1) An employer shall ensure that—
(a) during working hours, the temperature in rooms containing workstations is
appropriate for human beings, having regard to the working methods being used and the physical demands placed on the employees,
(b) for sedentary office work, a minimum temperature of 17.5° C, so far as is reasonably practicable, is achieved and maintained at every workstation after the first hour’s work,
(c) for other sedentary work, at every workstation where a substantial proportion of the work is done sitting and does not involve serious physical effort, a minimum temperature of 16°C is, so far as is reasonably practicable, achieved and maintained after the first hour’s work,
(d) means are available to enable persons at work to measure the temperature in any workplace inside a building,
The temperature in rooms in which employees work must be adequate having regard to:
(a) the indoor or special work clothing normally worn by the employees,
(b) the physical activity involved in the work,
(c) other elements of the thermal environment, such as radiant heat, humidity and air movement,
(d) the need for any special conditions arising from, or required for, the work
being carried out such as heat, cold, humidity etc.
In cases where it is difficult to maintain an adequate overall temperature, it may be necessary to provide effective local heating, protective clothing or cooling at individual workstations.

Care needs to be taken with temporary heaters so as to prevent burns from contact with hot surfaces. No heating method should be employed which results in the escape into the air of any workroom of any fume of such character and to such extent as to be likely to be injurious or offensive to employees therein.

The fact that a maximum temperature has not been specified in the Regulations does not mean that any temperature is acceptable. At high or uncomfortable temperatures, especially when not caused by temporary weather conditions, a means of cooling should be provided.
The General Application Regulations 1993 (S.I. No. 44 of 1993) did not cite specific
temperatures, leading to some uncertainty as to what was legally required or enforceable
when dealing with temperature issues; thus leading to the specification of some values in
these Regulations.
The temperature levels in Regulation 7(1)(b) and (c) are not comfort temperatures and do
not represent temperatures at which people can work most efficiently.
The determination of appropriate temperatures is addressed in ISO standard 7730 –
“Ergonomics of the thermal environment - Analytical determination and
interpretation of thermal comfort using calculation of the PMV and PPD indices
and local thermal comfort criteria”
which is available as an Irish standard IS EN ISO 7730:2005. This is a complex document
most likely to be used at the design stage or during a technical investigation of a complaint.
It is suggested that for most people an acceptable temperature for office work lies within the range of 18 to 23 o C. Recommendations for different building uses are available in guidance from CIBSE.
Advice on dealing with heat and cold stress is available from the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) or the British Occupational Hygiene Society.

You can inform the HSA

http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Workplace_Contact_Unit/

What do you expect to happen?

1, He could lay you off until he can get the insulation installed! A bit drastic!
2, You could ask for the heaters to be switched on earlier (or more heaters to be provided). The room should reach a suitable temperature within an hour of starting work to comply with legislation.
3, Wear heavier clothing (which the employer could provide as it would be PPE).
4, Relocate the business?


Options 2 and 3 are the only sensible choices.


What other entitlements did you think you should have?

What

zoemax

As Brightsprk has said you have no real power here other than to walk off the 'unsafe' job which in the current climate (no pun intended) might not be the most sensible thing to do. The HSA can be contacted but when they hear that the employer is making efforts to fix the problem they will not come down too hard on him. At most they will issue an improvement directive with a set deadline for the improvemets to be made.