Are you also going to weigh every employee and ensure they fit the manufacturers design usage specification?

The NHS is spending a king's ransom upgrading stretchers, hospital beds and the like to counter obesity in the general population.

And sorry absolutely no sympathy with comments stating faulty equipment is available for use - just hope their ambulance chaser doesn't read such public forums.

You don't need an audit form just someone with some common sense to spot missing screws, split welds, broken seats and the authority to save your organisation litigation by removing broken items from use until they are repaired or scrapped.

I wouldn't go as far as that:

We probably have 10,000+ chairs across the estate. I feel it would be disproportionate to employ staff to check every one, and do so on a regular basis.

Most of our staff are sensible people. They can get themselves dressed to go to work every day, they use public transport without instructions and some are competent enough to make their own sandwiches. I feel they will have the skills to be able to check their own chairs without the need for a engineering degree and an x-ray machine

So why not send an e-mail or issue comms say on an annual basis, reminding staff to check their chairs, perhaps issuing a short list of what they should look for. Different arrangements may need to apply for disabled or older staff who might not be able to physically check their chair, and for hot desking environments

But a full audit? Surely that is way over the top unless you are suffering multiple failures for some reason

I think the self-check option would be the most efficient across your site. Your attention could be focused on the same make/model/age of chairs as the one that collapsed.

the HSE gives a general guideline on how to maintain seating at work http://www.hse.gov.uk/pUbns/priced/hsg57.pdf

Legislation relating to seating at work includes the:

* Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974;
* Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999;
* Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992;
* Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992;
* Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992;
* Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998;
* Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996

Visually inspect the chair for the following:

Step 1. Check to see if the chair wheels are in good condition and rolls as designed.

Step 2. Check to see if the chair is sturdy when sitting in. Are all legs, arm rests, back
rest, and seat cushion in good working order? Check to ensure the chair seat does not lean
or shift from side to side.

Step 3. Turn the chair upside down and visually inspect the points where the chair frame
mounts to the seat and back rest

Step 4. Check all screws or fasteners to ensure they are all in place and tight.

Step 5. Check closely for any stress cracks in the plastic or metal. Inspect for signs of any
metal fatigue or distorted metal.

Step 6. Check the number of legs on rolling chairs. Chairs should have five legs.
If you find any chairs that fail this inspection, remove the chair from service and place a
red tag or sign that states "Do Not Use - UNSAFE FOR USE"

Hi,

We had a similar problem at a number of sites with chairs collapsing under customers (number of claims occurred). As a result we added a check to the annual safety self inspection and issued a couple of bulletins covering details of the accident with a reminder to staff to remove from use anything off the shop floor / back office that was broken. It seemed to work effectively.

Hope this helps.

OMG - I don't believe it...... next it will be pencils or pencil sharpeners

You are well out of it !

Trip to The Boat soon???

But falls from chairs has reduced so that balances it out and don't forget some are high chairs.

Hi Victor

Have you seen the consultation document put out by defra about the proposed H&S (Golf Courses) Regulations 2017 due to come into force on 1.4.2017?

Weekly inspection of golf trolley by a competent person, and statutory examination at least once every 14 months.

Just watch out for the hazard on the 19th hole ( bar stool / chair) I hear they can be dangerous.

Sadly before coming into H&S I knew of someone that made a claim for such an accident as in the OP. The company did come around checking chairs. People misuse them and lean back on the rear legs and they are not designed for that. Welds / joints break and down goes some innocent person.

If you were going to do it no checklist just a visual once over. Will you number them so you know which you have done ?? :0)

Apparently they conducted an audit of deck chairs on the Titanic...

Speaking of chairs - our IT department has a problem type definition of

PICNIC = Problem In Chair Not In Computer

Also "ID ten T" = ID10T

We have external IT support, so I would counter with :-

Problem In System Support Taking Available Knowledge Externally

I love them really, great source of amusement.
:o)

Violently hurled forward' Imagine the accident report Mr so and so was catapulted through the window when he was getting up to go to lunch.

Its been sometime since the original post but...

In our company, we recently (2016) had a fatality from someone falling off an office chair. the person was an IT worker setting up laptops at a workstation in a computer room. What happened was that the person reached over and down to pick up the next laptop from a pile placed on the floor beside the chair. As they leaned over, the chair's wheels slipped on the floor surface and the chair overbalanced. (It was an DSE chair nad was in perfectly good condition). he person hit their head on the way down and was knocked unconscious. They were taken to hospital and, tragically, died shortly thereafter.

Our investigation proved that it was the wheels that were the problem. These were solid plastic type castors and they had simply lost their grip on the solid floor surface of the computer room. it was was then we all had a bit of a Doh! moment, that you can get chairs with castors that are either solid plastic, or castors that have rubber tyres or wheels fitted, for extra grip on smooth surfaces. Cue a very swift check on chairs and castors everywhere.

One of the responders in an earlier post made an off-hand comment about such processes for inspecting chairs, along the lines of (whilst people are still being killed and injured by falling from height and collapsing earthworks etc., etc.) the implication being that checking chairs may not be as important in their overall view of the world.

That person should remember that in a call center, I don't have any working at height tasks and no earthworks at all. But we do have offices with over 300 chairs. And, tragically, one fatality.