Hi

“These Regulations, which apply to England only, provide that employers must take into account employees’ capabilities as regards fire safety in entrusting tasks to them. They implement article 6(3)(b) of Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work, and mirror Regulation 13(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (S.I. 1999/3242).”
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/s...i2010/uksi_20100471_en_1

Also:
http://www.communities.g...nts/fire/pdf/1501565.pdf
gives a good description of the reg

Thanks for the response Firesafetybod - the supllied link attachment makes it very clear.
Thanks again

How can this have no impact when it is quite definite in its requirement for capabilities - does that not mean "competence"?

Yes Phil, any reasonable employer...............................

What about the other side of the coin and the "unreasonable employer"?

There has been many a topic on here re fire risk assessment and the need to know what to do. This tells me that there are people who have been asked to carry out a fire risk assessment that do not have the capability.

Further - is there some allowance for an employee that has been asked to do something beyond their capability and decides to say no?

Chris

Where you say ‘some allowance’ for refusing to undertake a task that may be in breach of your contract of employment, I presume you mean protection.

There is some protection against dismissal or ‘detrimental’ action up to dismissal on the grounds of health and safety. While the main protection is for employee representatives and those reacting to what they perceive as ‘serious and imminent danger’, it includes:

‘bringing to your employer’s attention a concern about health or safety in the workplace’.

It should also be borne in mind that Section 7 of the HSAW Act 1974 requires an employee to:

‘take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work;'

So knowing that they are not competent to carry out specific work, an employee would be in breach of Section 7 (a) if they did it. ie not taking reasonable care of themselves and those around them. Indeed this applies to any situation where an employee is instructed to do hazardous work or to breach procedures, safe systems of work etc. This appears to be a right to refuse hazardous work or work that an individual is not competent to do. Or as Hazards might say a ‘right to strike’.

Should an individual be ‘victimised’ they have some redress if they ‘whistle blow’. However they would need to ensure internal procedures for dealing with the ‘grievance’ have been used. In health and safety the following would be covered:

‘a danger to the health and safety of any individual’

There is also an argument that knowing an employee is not capable of an allocated task and then ordering them to do it is in breach of Regulation 13 (1) of the Management Regulations 1999: ‘Every employer shall, in entrusting tasks to his employees, take into account their capabilities as regards health and safety.’

Of course, if an employee is unfairly dismissed, they have practically no chance of getting their job back. Of all the thousands of successful claims for unfair dismissal won at an employment tribunal, less than 0.6% of the people get their jobs back.

So even if you win, you lose!!!

Cheers.

Nigel