Posted By John Johnston I have a query about adequate supervision within a factory area, I hope you all can help. I will try and make it as clear as I can. A food production factory has a large deli holding from anywhere between 20 to 100 people on an average day. Also on an average day there will be around 4 or 5 chargehands/supervisor in the deli. My query concerns the fact that tomorrow (Friday), there will possibly be 30 people up until 3.30pm, after which all will go home except 2 female workers who work in the enclosed chill area. This chill area also normally has its own chargehand on an average day. The point is, these two female workers will be the lone workers in the deli, with no chargehand/supervisor in the deli. Is this within the law? Or, should there be some sort of supervision in this cold environment (0 - 5 degrees C). The fears of the female workers have included: high risk of slippage, one worker was trapped under racking which toppled, and has now sparked arguments at work. Could someone help clear this up? Thank you for your time, John

Posted By Allan St.John Holt Levels of supervision need to be adequate, reflecting the results of your risk assessments - which you need to get hold of and check. The first point to look at, though, is your organisation's safety policy. Under the organisation and arrangements, you should find the details of the competent person which the organisation is required to employ (internally or externally). This person should be in a position to answer basic questions of health and safety such as the situation you describe. If there is a risk to the health or safety of employees, this should be covered in the risk assessments for the workplace together with the control measures the employer has put in place. That's how it works nowadays - we've moved away from the prescriptive 'numbers game' approach to the position where the employer devises his own solutions following advice from the competent person(s) and relevant guidelines, in addition to specific requirements of Regulations. Hopefully this has not been a Grannie egg-sucking operation - I'm assuming you want some basic principles to start with! If not, apologies for stating what you may already know. Allan