Posted By John H One year on and I have now been tasked with conducting a new workstation assessment for vdu/dse, cctv users in my workplace. I have looked at the various Regs but couldn't find what I was looking for, so I have come here for help. Someone mentioned to me that there is a requirement for a 'minimum clear floor space' surrounding a 'workstation' (for DSE/VDU purposes). I cannot find anything in DSE/VDU Regs, PUWER, etc so I think someone might have given me some misleading information. Can anyone clarify if there is any requirement to have a certain amount of floor space 'per workstation'? My concern in trying to clarify this is that some of my colleagues work in a security gatehouse which is the approximate width of two and a half chairs. These chairs have to be 'used' side by side due to the nature of the work involved (one employee pushes buttons which works electrically operated barriers and a computer driven access control system, the other employee operates a seperate computer). To my mind, there is insufficient room to operate but supporting the claim is proving difficult.

Posted By Miriam John: An ACOP to the Workplace Regs specifies every worker should have at least 11 CUBIC METRES of workspace in which to move around and carry out their work in comfort. The formula for working this out is: MULTIPLY the height of the room (3 metres) by the width and by the length of the room, to get a sub-total. (The HEIGHT of a room is always 3 metres, anything above that is ignored)The sub-total is then DIVIDED by the number of people regularly occupying the room to get the total cubic metres occupied by each person. Don't forget a room cluttered with furniture (which includes workstations) and equipment can reduce the amount of work space. There are some work environments where the above requirements do not apply (e.g. machine control cabs)so you will need to check if they apply to a Security Gatehouse. Following on what Paul suggested, also look at Reg.11 of "Workplace" which covers some of the ergonomics of workstations. On the question of VDU's, the HSE have published a very good guide "Working with VDU's", presumably you have a copy of that. Also relevant is their guide on MSD (musculoskeletal disorders). I hope this is of some help. Miriam

Posted By Eamon Murtagh In the Guidelines on the Health And Safety of Office Workers issued by the Health And Safety Authority In Ireland the area specified is 4.65 square meters as a minimum for each person working in the office. This should exclude space taken up by fixtures such as presses and filing cabinets.

Posted By Richard Mathews Just to clarify a point on Miriam’s posting, the 3 metre rule applies to the maximum height of the room, above which anything else is ignored. If the height of the room was 2.5 metres then 2.5 would be used in the calculation. It’s always a good rule of thumb to subtract 40% from the total to allow for furniture, equipment, walkways, etc. For example a room measuring 10 metres x 5 metres x 2.5 metres high would be 125 cu/metres, subtract 40% from this = 75 cu/metres, divide by 11 the cu/metres per person = 6.8. Therefore enough room-space for 7 people. The 4.65 sq/metre guideline comes from the assumption that the room will have a minimum 2.4 metre ceiling height, giving 11 cu/metres (near enough). Regards, Richard