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Posted By Nina
I am fairly new to Health and Safety and am just starting my NVQ level 3 I know that's very low to most of you but I have to start somewhere! I have done lots of risk assessments and concentrated on VDU equipment as we are an IT company and working on VDUS is what we do all day long!! It's come to my attention that one of our guys uses a laptop all day for programming not good! but with my in put this is now being rectified!
my question is should you have different policies in the work place for laptops to normal PC's? we have outworkers that use laptops and of course laptops are taken to meetings etc.....
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Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Nina
Welcome to the crazy world of H & S!
The DSE Regs do not apply to 'portable systems not in prolonged use'. Therefore, if a laptop is used for long periods, it (and the workstation) must comply with the minimum requirements in the Schedule to the Regs. This may be relatively easy to do if the machine is used on your premises but not if it is used elsewhere (when you will be relying on the diligence of the user).
The policy should be the same for both types of machine (they must comply with the minimum requirements) but enforcement of the policy will be more difficult for laptops because you have less control depending on where they are used.
Paul
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Posted By Frank Hallett
Hi Paul
I hesitate to correct you - but your statement that "The DSE Regs do not apply to 'portable systems not in prolonged use'" is not an accurate reflection of the actual Regs but a paraphrase of the Guidance that accompanies the DSE Regs.
This, like the original HSE Guidance that said that portable equipment need not be considered at all, and the overly simplistic Guidance definition of how to define a "User" is very dangerous ground to rely upon.
The first swathe of DSE cases after the Regs came in cut the ground out from under the Guidance on "User" [although the published Guidance hasn't changed] and the HSE have subsequently published an excellent Research report some few years ago now that demonstrated that portable equipment should be given the same level of attention as fixed equipment.
Frank Hallett
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Posted By Paul Leadbetter
Frank
See reg 1(4), particularly clause (d) on page 8 of L26; it could hardly be plainer.
Paul
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Posted By J Knight
Hi Nina,
What we do is fairly straightforward. Laptops are given to people who move about a lot, and we do have a significant number of these. When they are away from base they use them as stand-alone devices, but in their office (be that in a workplace or their own home) they all have docking stations, with separate keyboard, mouse and monitor. We also have docking stations in our two main offices for hot-desking. This is not cheap, but since we upgraded and networked everything as part of large project it wasn't too much seen in the context of the whole budget. It neatly sidesteps arguments about prolonged use of laptops and so on, as peripatetic workers do only use laptops for long periods when they are at their base (as I am now) or in one of our offices,
John
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Posted By Cathy Ricketts
We use laptops in multiple locations - some in the office (hot desking) some in schools and educational settings, some remotely. Whever possible the laptops are used with peripheral equipment ie keyboard, mouse and docking station. We issue guidelines on laptop use at home and for general use. They are an integral part of how we work and are part of our DSE risk assessment. I am typing this from home on my laptop plugged into its docking station - one of the biggest issues we have is actually the manual handling of the laptops along with paperwork and other baggage that employees insist on carrying - so much for the paperless office.
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Posted By Ian Waldram
Nina,
The newly revised IOSH Technical guidance on Teleworking is worth looking at, for someone in your position. The checklists may help, as well as the guidance?
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