Posted By Matt Bridgeman-Rivett
I am the Health and Safety Advisor for a small organisation and I am looking for some advice/support on the hoary issue of welfare/rest/tea and coffee facilities!

We have recently moved some staff from an office in building A to another in building B.

The staff on the site have access to a cafe area, toilets and hand wash facilities in the new building.

The staff have taken with them a fridge and kettle from the old building which was in a separate room. Our senior manager doesn't want the staff to have a fridge or tea/coffee making facilities in the main office that will be viewable to members of the public (it is a big open plan office).

The Manager has cited Health and Safety as a reason for this! Now I need to be able to support this, though would simply prefer the 'it is unprofessional to have said items in a working office' view.

As far as I am aware under the Welfare Regs we have to provide:
- Access to a rest area - Done they can use the café (it is run by us)
- A place to eat food - Again done as above. They don't have to buy food from the café, but can eat packed lunches etc in the area
- Sanitary/Washing facilities - Done there are male/female/disabled access toilets nearby (hand washing only, no cups or plates)

I don't have an issue with them having the facilities in a separate room (not practical at the moment - that comes in the second part of the relocation next year)

Sadly the previous occupants did have a fridge and tea/coffee making facilities in the room and the H&S advisors for them who I know quite well may or may not have known about it - suffice to say they weren't told they couldn't do it under H&S regs/legislation.

So the question(s)/statements to my esteemed IOSH peers is...
I believe that under the Welfare Regs we have provided that which we should. Am I correct?
I think it would be easier to go down the 'professional appearance' route rather than H&S one. Would you concur?
Is there anything else that may sway the arguement one way or another?

Apologies for the long e-mail.
M.

Posted By Paul Leadbetter
The manager doesn't need H & S to justify his managerial decision although, as stated above, there could be some support on H & S grounds; it seems to me he is just trying to deflect the aggravation that he thinks will ensue. He should have the courage to stand by his own decision.

Paul

Posted By Barry x
Please do not use Health and Safety as an excuse for removing coffee making facilities in an office!!

I thought that we were trying to get away from bonkers conkers type stories rather than create them ourselves!!

If management want to make a decision then let them make it, but to quote H & S is just wrong!!

They should show some guts and tell the truth instead of hiding behind some extremely tenuous link to H & S

They had these facilities before their flitting, so what part of making coffee has become so dangerous in the past few weeks?!!

Posted By Andrew Meiklejohn
Do they have access to a means of a) making a pot noodle, b) heating their own soup, c) storing food at a temperature that will not cause deterioration.

If the answer to any of these questions is no then I believe that the welfare facilities are not adequate.

Posted By Peter F.
You don't have to use the H&S arguement, the regs, tell you that only an area needs to be available which the company have done, so therefore there is not a need for a kettle fridge etc.

Posted By Bob Youel
get the managers to stand up for themselves instead of using H&S as an excuse

The company want to change ways of working so they should be honest and confront the staff