Sorry folks not a nice subject but some advice/guidance would be appreciated.

I work for a cleaning/security company who have many contracts over the UK. Generally our duties are cleaning of common areas etc. However, clients being clients sometimes request for certain jobs to be undertaken that are above an beyond our contractual obligations. In this case our staff were asked to clean an area after a sewage pipe had burst. Generally it was in the main dirty water they had to deal with and from what I can gather there wasn't a great amount. But nevertheless there is still the risk of disease from the pathogens.

Not having dealt with this type of situation before, can anyone give me some advice or direct me to where I may find it on dealing with situations like this.

I have told our site manager that he should have informed the client that he can not undertake the work without first doing a risk assessment. Secondly I also told him that the client, probably penny pinching, should have got a specialist contractor in to deal with the situation.

Many thanks

Pagey,

You answered your own question really - Risk assessment!

You could include such scenarios in your general risk assessments - What you describe is not rocket science and would not necessarily require the services of a specialist contractor - so better for the client and extra income for your business if you do it (Maybe be add as 'extra' service to the contract?). The operatives may need some additional training and the guidance above may be of use. Part of the that training may include dynamic risk assessment so they can make a judgement on whether to proceed or refer back to you or your site manager for advice. Some organisation (ie NHS) will have their own procedures for dealing with this).

You could also trying searching for guidance on municipal cleaning (ie how do council workers do cleanups?).

Hope this helps

Jon