Posted By James Clark My workplace has two private car parks. One is tarmac and gravel, the other is block paving. Every Summer the block paving gets slippy due to algea and every winter it gets icey and even more dangerous. Last Friday a colleague of mine driving in to the car park slipped on the ice and banged in to three cars. Other times have seen staff fall over and bruise arms/legs/bottoms - including myself. My collegaue has been told to claim on her own car insurance, as it's not her employer's fault. Every time I report ice to our buidling manager/property services dept, I'm told that if they grit it they would be accepting responsibility for slips and trips on the car park and so won't do so. Yet, they gritted the car park 30 mins after the accident last week. Also, each summer they blast wash the algae off the car park. What are my employers responsible for?

Posted By Frank Hallett James - your facilities dept obviously believe that by denying that there is a problem that will actually make the problem and attendant liability go away - they are so wrong! On the basis that the car parks are under the direct control of the employer, The employer has direct liability under the HSWA, W[H,S&W] Regs and also under Occupiers Liability. The liability is greater if they do nothing than if something is done but fails. Frank Hallett

Posted By Jerry Lucey Hi James, I agree with Frank on this one and it is worth stressing to your employer that while you appear to have been fairly lucky to date in that a serious injury has not occured, the fact that a number of minor injuries occured makes it reasonably foreseeable that a more serious accident may occur. Your risk assessment for this area should record the minor incidents/ accidents and use these as evidence that a problem exists.

Posted By Glyn Atkinson My company have been brought to rights over one leased and one owned car park - two compensation claims for slips and falls. All of the above stated Regs were proven to be reasons for our facilities personnel to have assessed the areas and taken preventative measures in icy weather. I now get a daily winter gritting programme sheet on a simple site map as reference to what is supposed to be completed.