Posted By D smith Hi all Our company have looked into taking away seating away from CNC Setters in our factory,does anyone know anything about the legal aspect of this? Thanks in advance

Posted By MT Do you know the reason why the company are considering this? Of course, there could be serious ergonomic implications, if the task can be comfortably done from a seat, that could mean that a standing person would have to stoop to perform the same task.

Posted By Sally Have a look at Reg 11 of the Workplace (health, safety and welfare) regs. This covers workstations and seating. essentially it say that seating should be provided if possible.

Posted By D smith "The tricky part is whether the lull time between actually being at the CNC machine is considered "work". I think this is the time they are using the seats, yes?" yes that is correct it is the lull time.

Posted By Melanie Fellows From my own experience, it sounds as though they are setter/ operators, therefore once their "work" is done ie setting, they are basically minding the machine (watching and checking the odd component), which is why they like to sit down/ traditionally have chairs provided. We had a few chairs, but generally, you went off to set another machine, and left an operator to look after the one you've just set, the operator generally wasn't allowed to sit down (but that did depend on the cycle time). Management generally don't like people sitting down, as it looks like they're not doing anything. But if there's a medical reason or your assessment says they should sit down, why not? The only other aspect is, what else would they be doing if not sat down minding their machine? Should they be sweeping up etc. and in that case what would happen if their machine crashed and they weren't there to control it??? or the components went out of tolerance - how much scrap would this generate before it was noticed and corrected? Mel