H&S at work

[Lena]

I have a question to help my conscience; if you have reason to believe that a company you know of doesn't meet Health and Safety regs, do you have a duty to report them?

Say you are an employee and you belive your employer doesn't meet standards of working conditions, what do you do?

Get H&S in and risk loosing your job, not because you'd be dismissed but because the company would be shut down. Or find out what your employers duties exactly are and do the work yourself but in your bosses name, with their concent. By work I mean risk assessments, written safety policies, that sort of thing. The thing your boss just can't be bothered with, so is more than happy to have it done for him.

 

Is there an expert reading this who is prepared to discuss with me the matter further by email, as I don't want to write too much here in case I get anyone into trouble. But it is bothering me.

Help please!

[Brian]

In law you have a duty to protect yourself and others.

 

Feel free to PM or email me.

[Guest lightnix]

Have a look at the HSE page on Whistleblowing.

 

It says that the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 is supposed to protect whistleblowers from victimisation, although I don't know how well it works in practice.

[Gilly]

I would doubt that your organisation would be immediately shut down for not having the appropriate paperwork in place. Although the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regs do require written documentation for organisations of more than 5 employees, it would be likely that the enforcement officer would place an improvement notice on the organisation in the first instance with strict terms and timeframes for improvements, which would hopefully push your boss into improvements. If on the other hand there are actual unsafe systems and practices in place an enforcement officer may well take the view to place a prohibition notice on one or more processes. So as others have said already, you have a responsibility in law to protect yourself, other employees and others effected by your work processes, so a call to your local EHO might be in order.

 

Best of luck with your efforts.