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Posted By Jason McQueen
Hi. I came into work this morning to find that we are (again) going to have all the furniture rearranged to try and accomodate more staff. Can someone point me in the right direction (reg's wise) as to what should be taken into consideration e.g. minimum personal work space, distance of desks to walkways etc.
Many Thanks.
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Posted By Gordon Thelwell Hi Jason, Whilst working for Barnsley Council, i used to have the task of re-organising office space for extra staff. I quickly learned that the most important factor was to consult the staff BEFORE any changes were made. Personal space is a very subjective thing that people who will be affected need to have ownership and involvement in. Perticularly where excessive stress is a likely hazard in your risk assessment. Check this Canadian site out for some good general advice: http://www.ccohs.ca/osha...ffice/working_space.html
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Posted By Philip Roberts
Jason,
Regulation 10 of the Workplace(Health Safety and Welfare) regs deals with room size and individual space. The recommended minimum space is 11 cubic metres per person depending on furniture etc in the room.
Other regulations such as Fire precuations and disability discrimination detail min width of walkways designated as escape routes.I think 1200 mm. is the minimum width on such exit routes but you will need to check this in the relevent regs.
I have had this problem several times and it is not easy to solve.
good luck
Phil Roberts
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Posted By Nick House
Hi Jason
You might also want to take into account lighting. The HSE guidance on lighting states that for general office work, the average illuminance should be 200 lux, with a minimum measured illuminance of 100 lux. This increases should the office be a drawing office or similar, to an average of 500 lux, and a minimum of 200 lux.
Also, have you a fire certificate that states a maximum headcount? It is important that the additional staff that are proposed to be sited in the office can escape easily in an emergency, without a 'log jam' occurring at the Fire Exits.
Also, once the additional staff are in place, will any doors be partially obstructed? All doors should be able to be opened without obstruction, and without impedeing on workspace.
Finally, as a previous respondent has said, all affected members of staff should be consulted prior to the move. As well as personal space being subjective, they may well also have perfectly valid reasons why the headcount in their particular area should not be increased (work processes, etc.).
Hope this helps.
Regards
Nick.
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Posted By Jason McQueen
Thanks for the responses.
The workplace regs are little vague when it comes to the subject of and just states that there should be sufficient space. I realise that most of the issues should present themselves during risk assessment but I was hoping that there would be a little more.
What I particularly need to know is the width of walkways through an office. 1.6m springs to mind but cant for the life of me think why!
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Posted By Paul Leadbetter Jason Approved Document M of the Building Regs may tell you what you want to know. Go to www.odpm.gov.uk and follow the 'Building Regulations' link. Paul
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