Posted By Susanlynch
Good morning all,

Happy Monday.

I was wondering if anyone could help me please? have a client at the moment, large retail chain in Ireland (food shops and supermarkets). I am giving them advise on their floor inspections and am looking for case law reference I can give them for a precedent set down.

I cannot for the life of me find either the case or reference to it and I was wondering if anyone could tell me.

As far as I can remember it is an Irish case but could however be an English one, it concerned what is reasonably practicable re. floor inspections of a shop floor.

There were two cases before the courts in a relatively short period of time, one supermarket had pre-determined times for checking floors which was then ticked by members of staff, the other supermarket had just a blank sheet on which staff wrote the time and initialed when floor sweeps were done.

The courts found that the blank sheet approach was better standard as the first supermarket was expecting staff to adhere to certain exact times for floor sweeps which was setting an almost impossible goal for staff to adhere to.

If anyone could help me with this i would be very very very grateful!

kind regards,

Susan Lynch

Posted By Susanlynch
Stephen,

Fair play to you, looking it up now, thanks a million, I'm going simple here trying to remember it.

Posted By jackdaw
Susan,

Saw this case which relates to floor cleaning / inspections.

Green v Asda Store Ltd; Green slipped on single grape on floor and claimed damages for negligence. Asda showed that they operated a "clean as you go" system under which employees were to be alert to spillages at all times - because of this it was found that Asda was not negligent because the slip hazard could have only been there for a very short time.

Posted By biddy
this may be of interest
All employees participate in a “clean as you
go” regime.
n “Clean as you go” methodology should be “dry
cleaning” where practicable e.g. use a paper
towel to absorb a spillage rather than creating a
greater surface risk with “mop and bucket”.
n Thorough ‘wet cleans’ to be designed to
cleanse floor and remove all contamination.
Where practicable, such cleans should be
cordoned off until returned to a dry state and
done at time of day when pedestrian
movements are at their lowest.
n Employee training provided to ensure they
apply the correct cleaning technique for the
respective contamination encountered.
n Active monitoring techniques are recorded to
demonstrate employees are working to “clean
as go” routine. These can be included in
manager/supervisor’s responsibilities and more
formally perhaps by departmental audits that
score housekeeping performance.
n In premises, which the public have access to,
regular inspections of the thoroughfares should
be recorded at least hourly.

here http://www.qbe-europe.co...0Trips%20and%20Falls.pdf