I need a bit of advice here. 

A work colleague has removed all external safety signage.  What are the options as far as an employer is concerned.  It is clearly a breach of their terms of employment, not to damage or interfere with company property. Are there any issues from a HASWA or regulations aspect that need to be brought to the table?  

Your thoughts please.

Keep it simple.  Seems fairly simple tat if the employee is damaging / remiving company signage etc then that would be the internal issue for the company to deal with - including reviewing and replacing signs are needed.  That may be sufficient to deal with the employee whether its words of advice or something more serious.   Introducing legislation as the 'stick' to the employee could be a way of saying what they have done wrong, however, IMHO, the employer can't really enforce the legislation by way of taking them to court etc.   Yes they could enforce internally, but if they can enforce internally then why use legislation rather than contract?

I’d be curious to why they did this? Yes, keep this internal using disciplinary procedures with the option of  torture on stand-by.  The HSE won’t prosecute and you can’t take out a private prosecution so Section 8 is not really relevant.

I often admit to removing superfluos signs at new employments but have never been in a position where every extenal (or internal) sign would come down.

Silliest of questions but have you spoken to this colleague to determin why?

Originally Posted by: A Kurdziel

I’d be curious to why they did this? Yes, keep this internal using disciplinary procedures with the option of  torture on stand-by.  The HSE won’t prosecute and you can’t take out a private prosecution so Section 8 is not really relevant.

If a person is to be disciplined, there must be a valid reason for the disciplinary action and the action justified. Just breaking company rules may not be sufficient. However, suppose a person has broken the law by ‘intentionally or recklessly interfering with safety equipment’. In that case, this may be a just and valid reason for disciplinary action, so, I believe section 8 of the H&SAWA could well be relevant in this case.

As others have said, why was the signage removed needs to be established.

“If a person is to be disciplined, there must be a valid reason for the disciplinary action and the action justified. Just breaking company rules may not be sufficient.”

 If breaking company’s rules is not a reason for bringing about disciplinary action, then what is? What is the point of having rules if they are not enforced? I work in the higher education sector where the culture seems to be based on the idea that rules, particularly for students do not need to be enforced. This means that things like getting students to wear face coverings and to social distance is very difficult-we reason with them  and put up loads of signs and indulge in agitation and propaganda, but a small hard core do not want to cooperate? What can you do then?

Edited by user 03 February 2021 13:52:59(UTC)  | Reason: words and thgings

Originally Posted by: Eddkeeper

I need a bit of advice here. 

A work colleague has removed all external safety signage.  What are the options as far as an employer is concerned.  It is clearly a breach of their terms of employment, not to damage or interfere with company property. Are there any issues from a HASWA or regulations aspect that need to be brought to the table?  

Your thoughts please.

No reply as to reason for removal. This has all the hallmarks of a rhetorical question????

Suppose some overhead safety signs had become loose and there was an evident risk that they were going to fall down and injure someone.

Then suppose someone took them down in the interests of their and others' safety.

Should they be disciplined?

I would never assume that the hazard the sign was warning about was ever there in the first place let alone that it is still there!

Edd- as the original poster can you confirm that these were "official" signs there for a genuine purpose?. I have previously had problems with a local safety rep putting up signs all over the place and an irritated member of staff following them around and taking them them down.