What does the Brexit mean for health and safety?
On triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, Britain and the EU will begin upon a two-year period of negotiation to determine the terms under which we will deal with the rest of mainland Europe
Practice Safe
“Surgery without audit is like playing cricket without keeping the score.” Firstly I should apologise for misappropriating Hugh Brendan Devlin’s quote but the purpose of the Care Quality Comission (CQC) audit scheme is to establish a national standard for health care providers and should reassure patients as well as those working in the industry. The…
The wait is almost over
On June 10th, Euro 2016 kicked off. Patriotism will be the name of the game as four weeks of high intensity football stand to dominate our screens and our conversations. Employers, be prepared. Be prepared for national rivalries, last-minute holiday requests, staff absences, and the general distraction that epic sporting events like this bring with…
Online fire risk assessments
12 months ago we set ourselves a challenge to find a way that our fire risk assessment could meet the requirements of the RRO, the expectations of the local fire brigades and to help our customers to better manage their fire risks. This has resulted in our new online fire risk assessment which not only…
Lend me your ears…
A loss of any form of sensory input is a life changing event. Consider our ability to perceive sound; the accumulative destruction of hearing over time can and will be devastating to the individual concerned. Whilst hearing sensitivity does decrease with age, the risk of accelerated loss can be worsened by exposure to excessive noise…
CDM changes still causing confusion
It is over a year since the CDM changes were brought in, but there still seems to be some confusion as to how the regulations have panned out and what the implications are for builders, especially those working on smaller projects. Here’s a quick re-cap: Changes to the regulations and the roles of the duty…
Company fined £100,000 after worker crushed by marble
Following a serious accident the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigated a cargo handling company and found that an unsafe system of work had been used. On 15 August 2014 an employee of Extreme Handling (a supplier of forklift drivers and general warehouse operatives) was working at GMA Warehousing and Transport’s site in Felixstowe, Suffolk. …
Changing employees’ terms and conditions
Here we look at best practice to help you keep on the right side of the law. We assume in this article that you don’t recognise a trade union. If you do, you’ll normally be able to agree changes with the union rather than each individual employee, and you’ll face the risk of industrial action…
Shared Parental Leave – are you ready?
As stated in our latest Employment Law Newsletter a key update within family friendly legislation for April is the introduction of Shared Parental Leave. This means that eligible parents of babies due on or after 5 April 2015 will enjoy Shared Parental Leave and pay and women may shorten their right to maternity leave to enable…
Travelling time included within “working time”
On the 11th June the European Court of Justice announced that peripatetic workers, that’s to say workers who are not assigned to a fixed or habitual place of work, should have the hours spent travelling from home to their first customer and back home from their last customer included within their ‘working time’. The ruling…