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.
As an employer, you are legally required to protect the health, safety, and wellbeing of your employees – and anyone else affected by your work activities
The HSE is turning its attention to motor vehicle repair businesses to ensure effective measures are in place to protect workers from isocyanate exposure
If you wear tight-fitting respiratory protective equipment (RPE) at work, it is a legal requirement to undergo a face fit test carried out by a competent person.
President of IOSH 2008, Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
I am pleased that you are helping dispel some of the dafter myths that surround OH&S (a passion you and I clearly have in common) and the item clearly indicates that as with so many of our professional colleagues you are not about stopping fun on the pretext of H&S. It is only with the help of people such as yourself that we will eventually get the message across that OH&S is about bringing (as you so aptly put it) purpose and value to peoples lives
