Posted By John Almond A young woman at my place of work is 5 months pregnant, and she is finding it difficult to do her normal job, she approached management who suggested that she should just sweep up. She did try this job but found that when she had been stood for any length of time her legs and back hurt, so she asked if there was any other job she could do and was told there was nothing else in the factory for her and should go on the sick. I must add here that a risk assessment has not been done for her. She is also an asthma sufferer and the shop floor where she works is quite dusty (we make kitchens and there is a lot of MDF dust lying around). What should she do next? She has been told that she should be put onto maternity suspension by her shop steward so she will not loose any money, is this correct? Thanks in advance for any help

Posted By John Almond Thanks Paul I forgot to say that I am the shop steward and I am quite new to this. Would I be correct in saying that I should put in a grievance on behalf of the young woman? and if so how would I word it

Posted By John Almond Oh , and just to let you know. The person that will be doing the assessment will be the HR and she is almost 8 months pregnant herself!! And just one more thing, is there any where on the net where I can find information regarding advice on how to write letters to management. Regards John

Posted By Gilly Margrave Hi John, We meet again - same topic different chat room. Sean is quite right about the value of TUC training (although I know that your union often prefers to use its own training centre). The courses include advice on letter writing and communicating with management etc. If you can't get to a nearby TU Education centre the courses are also available on line.You can register at: http://www.learningservi...tional/onlineed_form.cfm That of course doesn't solve your immediate problem as you need to deal with the issue in the short term. I usually try to be fairly polite initially working on the assumption that the employer does not know that they are in breach and use phrases like "as a good employer I am sure that you would wish to....whatever". (I occasionally get accused of being a sarcastic little b*!ch but that can't be helped). The important thing from a TU point of view is to make sure that you keep copies of all correspondence in case things get nasty further down the line. If you don't get a response fairly quickly then you do need to move into the grievance procedure. In the longer term you probably need to look at your workplace policies and procedures to make sure they have been brought up to date to take into account the 1999 changes to the Management Regs. Does your local GMB Branch have a H&S Officer or Convenor who could help you out or possibly a Women's Officer or Eqalities Officer? Best of luck with this one. Gilly

Posted By John Almond Many thanks to all who responded, I have a meeting tomorrow with HR and I have printed out your replies just in case. Again many thanks. Regards John

Posted By Hilary Charlton I think that you have had quite a good result there. However, when the risk assessor comes in I should ask him to have a look at the dust situation certainly because asthmatic or not I don't think it can be a good idea having quantities of MDF dust which is swept up with a broom - do you have special extraction for this? At the very least this should be vacuumed up so that you are not creating airborne particles. Hilary

Posted By Gilly Margrave Whilst not wanting to be overly politically correct I don't think many women would regard pregnancy as a disability unless of course you are regarding it as an injury caused by men!

Posted By Gilly Margrave Further to my response to Bob's DDA idea. The Guidance to the DDA defines long term (one of the elements in defining disability) as: . The Act states that, for the purpose of deciding whether a person is disabled, a long-term effect of an impairment is one: · which has lasted at least twelve months; or · where the total period for which it lasts, from the time of the first onset, is likely to be at least twelve months; or · which is likely to last for the rest of the life of the person affected (Sch1, Para 2). Unless my understanding of human biology is way off the mark that would rule out pregnancy! Gilly

Posted By Jason Gould John I have to ask this out of interest. HAS ANYONE WITHIN THE MANAGEMENT SIDE OF YOUR COMPANY HAD ANY HEALTH AND SAFETY TRAINING?. (not sarcasm just concern) I only ask this because with you stating you are union safety rep and company has a HR department and the fact it can spend 1.5 million on extraction sound to me that your company is of a fair size. (could be wrong) I dont know your company or how many are employed their. But to me it sounds like your on your own here in a dispute with management. Surely by now I was expecting you to have posted a resolved note today as I was half expecting this to get to a safety managers or manager with safety training ears and HR then understanding the situation. But external risk assessment for pregnant woman in mdf environment Hmmmm. I would understand if it was for whole department and extensive sampling was required. Maybe Im misunderstanding the situation so Im not going to comment any further as Im sure more experienced folk will be happy to help you. Good luck with result Regards Jason

Posted By John Almond Dear Jason In response to your Q “HAS ANYONE WITHIN THE MANAGEMENT SIDE OF YOUR COMPANY HAD ANY HEALTH AND SAFETY TRAINING?” I am beginning to think not, Reason, the company had to get a risk assessor from Stoke and the outcome was the young lady was given a job in the admin office (which did not exist earlier in the week). And yes, the company is quite big if you consider over 1600 people worked here 12 months ago but that has now changed and around 650 are now employed. Regarding the HR, I now think that they knew they had dropped a B*****K and they have resolved the situation (but with egg on their faces) Regards John

Posted By David J Bristow Dear John Sorry to start this response so formally, please be assured I am not ditching you for a young wealthy American solder !!!!!!!!!!!. Not only should you be concerned with new and expectant mothers, you also have to consider nursing mums (those that are breastfeeding) when they return to work in your risk assessments. Don’t forget that breach of MHSW regulations with regards to the above can confer grounds for civil action by the “injured party”. Last but not least – MDF is the next Asbestos occupational health problem for the future! Hope this helps Regards David B

Posted By John Murphy HSE Books have a free pamphlet (A guide for new and expectant mothers). It answers all or most of your questions. The URL is : http://www.hsebooks.co.u...gov.uk/pubns/indg373.pdf Regards John