DJ

I don't know if its the same case but from my dim distant memory when studying my NEBOSH there was a case such as this in an engineering workshop. It was used as a defining case in "reasonably practicable" and it was held that it would not be RP to bring the whole area up to temperature and that local heating, breaks etc should be accepted.

Hope that helps.

Brian.

The Approved Code of Practice suggests a minimum temperature in workrooms should normally be at least 16 degrees Celsius – or 13 degrees Celsius if much of the work indoors involves severe physical effort. These temperatures are not absolute legal requirements; the employer’s essential duty is to determine what reasonable comfort will be in the particular circumstances.

There is no maximum temperature, although WHO recommends a max of 75F.

Spurred by my own curiosity I found my notebook with details of the industrial tribunal hearing held on 30.3.77. It was a long day and apparently included a site visit by the tribunal to the hangar involved. The area involved was enclosed on 3.5 sides at the back of the hangar. Unfortunately I don't readily have a copy of the improvement notice involved. However, it seems that it cited alleged breaches of section 2 of the HSW Act 1974 and Section 3(1) of the Factories Act 1961, much of which was still in force at the time. Thus, much of the evidence by various people, including employees, inspectors and specialists for both sides, was about the reasonable practicability or otherwise of providing heating, probably localised radiant heating, and/or whether or not the area was a factory room and therefore some form of heating should be provided by employees. At the end of the hearing (19:10 hours) the tribunal members said that they would issue a decision with reasons about the improvement notice as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I don't think I've got any written copy of the decision but am reasonably certain that it upheld the firm's appeal against my boss's improvement notice. Therefore, to echo DJ's plea, does anyone know if are available from anywhere about the notice and the tribunal's decision?

In life you win some things and lose others: The day before the tribunal hearing my boss, a colleague and I had been at Inverness Sheriff Court for a trial arising from the tragic death of one of McDermott's employees at Ardersier through asphyxiation in an underground valve chamber while searching for a leak of argon gas from a pipe connection. Though the case was defended, the firm was almost certainly convicted for a clear breach of the relevant section (30?) of the Factories Act 1961 regarding basic precautions for confined spaces.

From what I could see during a dolphin watching boat trip on the Moray Firth last year, the site of the Ardersier yard was just a large expanse of grass and concrete. Websites state that the yard closed in 2002 after 30 years of production. The closure almost certainly had a major adverse effect on employment and business, etc in the Inverness area. Before demolition the hangar was photographed and measured in detail for industrial heritage purposes as being one of if not the largest structure of its kind in Europe. The dolphin watching trip wasn't greatly successful: saw countless seals lounging on various sandbanks and about 1.5 seconds worth of a dolphin doing a leap above the water!