If you are still working during this period you must still follow government guidelines around social distancing.
For some transport, construction, manufacturing, and trades activities, this may lead to an increase in lone working as you are adapting to the current requirements.
Lone working is not prohibited but it must be assessed to ensure that employees are not put at risk.
Lone working does not just mean a single person working on a premises, it may also include large premises with singular employees working on different floors, departments, and areas away from others.
Employers are required to carry out a risk assessment of work activities and take reasonable measure to protect lone workers.
Risk assessment should include measures for employee training, supervision and monitoring (keeping in touch).
Employee training should include the risks involved with the task and the necessary procedures for managing those risks.
This training should include the procedure for dealing with emergencies and understanding the arrangements for keeping in touch.
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In addition to training employers should provide systems for employees to keep in touch this may include things like; pre-arranged checks at designated times using a phone or radio, arrangements for knowing where workers are and what their anticipated movements might be (such as checking diaries), manual or automatic device for raising an alarm in an emergency, systems for reporting when they have reached and returned from the destination safely.
Employees or their representatives should be consulted on changes in working conditions that may impact their health and safety at work, involving them in your lone working risk assessment may lead to joint problem solving and enhanced cooperation with company procedures.
For further advice on lone working you should speak with your competent H&S adviser or alternatively give us a call and we’ll be more than happy to help.
Businesses are being warned to make sure their staff are safe when working with metalworking fluids or coolants. Manufacturing businesses should implement control measures and carry out health surveillance checks with occupational health professionals.
Safewell is please to announce we can now test the HF 800/HF 800 SD Half Mask from 3M. 3M have been a market leader in RPE for a long time and produce quality equipment.
Do Lone Workers need First Aid Training? to answer this question first check the work activity risk assessment and if there is injury risk that is impacted by lone working then first aid training for lone workers is advised. This may include some first aid self treatment in the training.
The Timber saw mill company had only an in-house Fire risk assessment and understood that it didn’t adequately cover the fire risks of the business. They contacted Safewell for a Fire risk assessment from a competent Fire Risk assessor to identify what they needed to do to ensure the premises and also staff training was compliant for the fire risks that they had.
