Posted By A Day
One of our employees came back to work after 1 week off sick with a beckham injury on his right foot. This employee plays football as a second job. When he hobbled through the workshop on crutches i was ask to carry out a return to work RA, now, his job is to repair and recalibrate items of light tooling wieghts up to 8kg which he collects from a storage unit about 35m away from his workbench, he sits at his at workbench and all tools and equipment is within easy reach of his sitting position without over stretching etc. This description is of his daily tasks. In the area where he works they use a laquer to clean / polish the equipment, as this is in a spray form some of the mist falls directly on the floor making it slipery. Our housekeeping is not excellent so walkways and exit routes tend to be obstructed from time to time if there are a number orders being processed, so from these reasons i informed our manager that the risks will be increased significantly and we should send him home until he can walk unaided by crutches. i was told to carry out the RA which i did and put extra provisions in place like no cleaning to be carried out for the forseeable future around the area where he was working, the floor had to be free of trip hazards and all exit routes to be free from obstruction also provide him with a buddy to carry out his manual handling tasks, so basically he just sat there conducting his job. this all happened in the morning. the same afternoon our director came up to me and told me that he had sent the employee home due to the fact that it was unssafe for him to be in work on crutches (not that i had recommended this earlier). The next day my manager came in to me and said he had been speaking to a person who taught him on his IOSH manging safely course (I also have this course and the NEBOSH General cert and currently in my last days of the NVQ Level 4) and this person said that aslong as there were extra provisions in place to safe guard the employee he could be at work. I may be doubting myself here, but i worked to the hierachy of risk assessment number one eliminate the risk.

sorry to ramble on but needed to give a full picture any different thoughts???

thanks Andy

Posted By Darren J Fraser
From what you have stated, I would say that you did everything correctly. I assume that you documented everything.
As the Director sent the person home, I would refer your manager to them.
As you stated in your post, "The next day my manager came in to me and said he had been speaking to a person who taught him on his IOSH manging safely course (I also have this course and the NEBOSH General cert and currently in my last days of the NVQ Level 4) and this person said that as long as there were extra provisions in place to safe guard the employee he could be at work." again I assume that the person who made this comment is unaware of all the facts and therefore would IMHO be unable to advise accordingly. You have completed IOSH, NEBOSH and nearly finished NVQ4, you are employed by the company concerned, know the processes and are therefore in a much better position to give the correct advise and recommendations..............therefore do not doubt yourself. It may be worth taking your manager for a walk round and ask them to point out all that is wrong and explain what they are going to do to resolve it and by when, get them to put that in a report and hold them to it.
Next time a Risk Assessment is required, get them to complete one, and you complete one, compare the two to see who has identified, and recommended the relevant control measures - I am pretty certain that with your knowledge, you will be able to demonstrate your competence (not that it needs to be by the sound of things).

If all else fails, look for another manager who is willing to listen to what you say and is prepared to put the health and safety of their collegues first, or deal with the Director in person.

You could also mention Section 36 of HASWA74 to your manager and ask them what they think it means in relation to their position - normally good for a debate on the why's and wherefores of practicing good housekeeping etc.

Posted By Alan Hewett
Ian ~ I don't think that the person would come under the remit of the DDA unless the impairment [had] or [is] likley to last more than 12 months.

Regards

Alan

Posted By Bob Thompson CMIOSH
first and foremost the question of risk assessment when the person returns to work is immaterial. The first thing to establish is whether the doctor has signed the person fit for work more to the point fit for all duties. If not then the person should not be on site as insurance will no doubt balk if a problem were to occur. After establishing this then quite rightly undertake a risk assessment and act on your findings.

Regards Bob