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Posted By Susan Drake
Our Company Social Club is planning to organise activities outside working hours and away from the workplace. Do we as employers have any responsibilities and duties as far as safety is concerned?
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Posted By Glyn Atkinson
Just for info - my firm recently held a charity bike ride, and we extended our company public liability policy to cover the event and the participants.
This was the first time in several years that this had been considered as a good requirement to protect workers if injured and off work to also cover some of the earnings losses.
Would you believe that one of the riders was injured quite badly - and if not for his cycling helmet might not be around today.
One dislocated shoulder and cracked shoulder joint later - clipped a kerb at a roundabout. bent bike, cycling clothes ruined and cut off in hospital - probable several months off work to recover.
Consider this scenario when organising pure works-only personnel outings - may be worth having insurance cover for specialist events?
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Posted By Saracen11
Hi Susan, if the activity was during a planned two week shut down of the site for maintenance repairs, and you all got together following a few phone calls, would you be asking the same question?
The fact that the activity is 'outside' the normal working hours beit two hours after finish time or 300 hours after, I think is irrelevant.
I would say the employer has no DoC over activities outside of the prescribed tasks of an employee whilst not in their employment...
If you went to a bar, the licensee would have the DoC, in the same way if you went to a resturant etc...
If one of the group had a notifiable incident i.e. went directly to A&E for treatment following a fall, it would be the duty holder that would report (member of public leaving the scene etc), not the employer as the activity wasn't a work related one.
Regards
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Posted By Paul Devlin
I think it may well come down to who actually puts the money forward to pay your social activities Susan?
If its a social fund similar to one that I run then its generated by the staff only and although managers are invited its deemed as totally seperate from work. This is more to do with having social events as relaxed as possible and any drunken misdemeanours for example wont lead to disciplinary action or worse!
This leads to my next point if indeed there was implications such as that for your social activities then your company cant have it both ways, if they want the ability to control certain aspects of the activity then they must take responsibility for it all?
Hope this helps??
Paul
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Posted By Paul Bellis
Consider this one
Last week -my wifes workforce organised a party at work premesis grounds where the manager resides in a company owned dwelling - he was leaving - they hired a bouncy castle (hate them things) and the enevitable happened alcohol+bouncy castle = broken arm.
My advice to a panicking manager - private party, not arising out of or in connection with work, privately organised and funded, nothing wrong with premesis location -it didnt contribute to the accident in any way - dont worry about it - nothing to be done - not RIDDOR reportable
but if they had tripped over dodgy pavement or pothole etc - then it may have been different
makes you think though
Paul
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Posted By Kieran J Duignan
Paul Devlin is right to raise the principle of any form of management control.
In my experience, some organisations consciously use social, out-of-hours activities as management tools, as a form of competition with other subsidiaries of the same international business. Where they neglect to manage risks to employee safety, they recognise that the risk to the reputation of the business is even potentially more costly and invest a lot of management time and other scarce resources in controlling the consequences of management errors.
'Having it both ways' is a business risk that may be unexpectedly expensive to the extent that management fail to manage foreseeable risks to employee safety and then initially turn a Nelson eye on their responsibilities.
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