I suspect that the owner is a “dog lover”-likes dogs, hates people. So, the pooches get all of the looking after and its that which gets them past the local authority inspection while H&S of staff is completely ignored.

In theory the owner is completely breaking the law, section 2 of Health and Safety ay Work Act and chunks of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations. In theory the employee,  should raise the issue with the employer in the first  instance and then they can report it ( to the council with their H&S hat on). Under employment law  she should be protected  from retribution but in practice  I suspect that she will get short shrift. If this goes to an employment tribunal, they will simply wind the company up and a totally new business will arise from the ashes with the same owner and the same poor employment practices.

That’s how it works in the brave gig economy of 21st century Britain.

Edited by user 12 May 2023 09:17:29(UTC)  | Reason: words and thgings

Morning firesafety

As has been implied, there is a relatively small number of employers who are entirely disinterested in treating their workers with due respect, nor be influenced by any legal requirements.

Suppose this night shift worker makes an anonymous complaint about H&S to the local authority, the LA Environmental Health Office could e.g. do a night visit and attempt to hold the line that doing out of hours visits is the norm, but this employer is going to assume that a complaint has been made and it won't take much to guess where the complaint has (probably) come from.

Which means that employee then gets treated even more badly.

...and with no effective means of getting redress.

Probably time she looks for another job, and puts this down "to experience".

Edited by user 12 May 2023 11:08:27(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Looking afer dogs in a "boarding" context is a licensable under the animal welfare act - This means LA should have already visited the premises and ensured it met animal welfare standards as well as looked through safety info. 

May help to make a complaint to the council with regards to animal welfare in which case they will visit for that reason and pick up on other things whilst there.

Hi Craig

To add to what AK has written, if the LA is the enforcing authority for occupational health and safety AND for animal welfare, it is likely to be two different parts of the LA working largely independently.

So, just like many an internal or external auditor, the enforcing officer is usually only focusing on the legislation that falls to THEM.

Hence the person issuing the animal welfare licence is unlikely to include much, if anything, on worker health and safety and probably even more unlikely to be spending much time considering the workers when checking on compliance with the licence.

A not uncommon problem where there are multiple enforcing authorities, each with their own brief.