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Posted By Peter Wright
What is the position with a primary school that this morning has been found with no water and no toilet facilities - pupils have been sent home but staff have been instructed to stay on the premises and do planning ??????????
Is this a legal request ??? Please point me inthe right direction !!!
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Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Peter
See the Workplace Regs but why is someone from Heinz getting involved in education?
Paul
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Posted By Peter Wright
its for my other half - thanks for the advice
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Posted By fats van den raad
If I were the teachers I'd cause a right stink about this!!
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Posted By James M
pardon your pun, fats
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Posted By Peter Wright
I need to know the "Legal" standing ?
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Posted By Ron Young
I would say that if there is no chance of water being restored in the near future and there are no other nearby facilities that could be used by common agreement, it would be a breach of R20, 21 & possibly 22 of the Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare Regs 1992
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Posted By J Knight
Workplace (health, safety & welfare) regs 1992 Reg 20(1) 'suitable and sufficient sanitary converniences shall be provided at redaily accessible places'; note the use of the word 'shall' and the absence of any qualification such as where reasonably practicable;
Same regs Reg 21 (1) 'Suitable and sufficient washing facilities...shall be provided at readily accessible places
And again Reg 22 (1) 'An adequate supply of wholesome drinking water shall be provided for all persons at the workplace'.
So, nowt to drink, nowhere to wash, and nowhere to ***, I should go home myself, though I would probably give management some time to either make arrangements or reach some kind of agreement that I could go home,
John
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Posted By Ron Young
Shall is an absolute duty and is the highest qualification under H&S legislation
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Posted By fats van den raad
When one has to go, one has to go, but if there are no facilities for one to go when one needs to go one should not be required to remain, but rather be permitted to go so that one could go whenever one needs to go.
Not reasonable to expect them to stay there even for a short period of time without access to facilities.
"No Bogs, No work!!"
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Posted By J Knight
Fats, that's brilliant and I couldn't agree more,
John
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Posted By J Knight
Although I would still give them maybe a half hour or so to try and sort something out, but that may be because I'm sometimes too flexible for my own good,
John
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Posted By Mark Jacobs
Not wishing to stop hard working teachers from going home early but....
If the toilets are fed by a tanked water supply and the majority of users have gone home (bless them) there should be sufficient water to keep the toilets operational for some time.
A trip to the local newsagents for bottled water will enable them to continue work and comply with H&S legislation.
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Posted By Mark R. Devlin
Are there any bushes nearby?
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Posted By Stevie
Puir wee teachers !!! Send them on to nightshift on the railways and they'll know all about welfare facilities !!!!
Seriously though ....if the problem is short term I'm pretty sure arrangements can be made for them to access the facilities of another establishment within their authority.....although these facilities are a legal 'must have' I think a practical and reasonable approach should be the order of the day when situations like this arise
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Posted By J Knight
The problem with facilities elsewhere in teh authority is that the regs do use the phrase 'readily available'. I don't know where this school is, but where do you think the next nearest school is on Barra or Islay? Travel distances in rural areas can put places well beyond ready availability. Sure, the employer could agree to provide bottled water, and there might be some water in a storage tank to work the loos for a day; this is why I'd talk before going home, but without this kind of arrangement I'd be off,
John
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Posted By Graham Peters
good H & S advice. well done Stevie
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Posted By Stevie
I'm pretty sure if the school was on Barra and Islay the local hotel could be put to good use ....especially at this time of the year !!!!
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Posted By Jonathan Breeze
Of course this discussion is academic as the school day is now over.
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Posted By Mike Craven
Isn't all this about common-sense, basic risk assessment, reasonable practicality, etc?
OK the Regs are quite clear - the school has to provide toilets, washing facilities, drinking water, etc. And, if these provisions can't be met - any tank-fed water has run out, the school is in the middle of nowhere and so on - then people can't be expected to work in such conditions.
However, if the school is in a city/town and water/toilet-facilities/etc are available closeby (public conveniences, local pub, supermarket, neighbouring business, etc), and the situation is short-term, it wouldn't seem too unreasonable to ask the teachers to use the alternative facilities, assuming that agreement could be made with the person providing use of their facilities.
Not for the first time, we are all rushing to comment on a thread about which we have little knowledge or background info!
Mike
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Posted By Gary L
What's wrong with drafting in a couple of self contained portaloos?
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Posted By Peter MacDonald
We use porta loos on our sites and I have to say I personally cannot stand them and avoid them like the plague. The flush systems are rarely efficient. When on site there should always be at least four I think. Two for each sex split for one and twos (if you get my drift) And yes I realise the hypocrisy of me hiring these things for site if I don't use them myselves but they are sufficient under law when the proper spec and serviced regularly. I woudn't be surprised if the teachers would refuse to use them anyway. There are better solutions on the market but they require on site direct plumbing or bowser and pump (such as trailer drawn toilet blocks)but they are expensive.
Peter
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Posted By Mark Jacobs
Mike is right there isn't much to go on.
But isn't that the thread?
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Posted By fats van den raad
Mike
Steady on there old chap. How often does the opportunity for a bit of toilet (or lack of it) humour present itself on the site?? When it does some of the more humourly blessed members of the forum seize the moment to bring a bit of very welcome lightheartedness to the forum.
Chill out, have a laugh and then move on.
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