Hi Guys

I currently have 1 employee who cycles in everyday and of course sometimes his cycling clothes get wet, he is also required to change in to uniform.  We do not have any changing room facilities, but we do have an area that can be used as a subsitute but requires a screen for privacy on a Mezzanine floor.  But he does need a way to dry his clothes, and i have came up with a solution for this.  However i have spoken to my employeer and they have said that to implement this and have a way for the employee to dry his clothes they would need to build changing rooms for both male and females.

The employee is the only one who needs an area to change and dry his clothes as "far as reasonably practicable" i have come up with a solution. Or am I being too simplistic.

Please advise.

Sounds over the top. The clothing gets wet because of his commute not workplace activities. If  work activities were dirty and required  a complete change of clothes yes you would have to do something.

Why can’t he just use the toilets like everybody else?

Toilets in the main are not typically designed as changing rooms - having mopable floors the mix of a body and wet clothing is a case of when, not if, an accident gets reported.

The employee is required to wear a uniform, they are NOT required to change in to a uniform.

Being brutal it is not pleaseant for work colleagues to have wet clothing draped around drying.

Originally Posted by: CptBeaky

As for male and female facilities, I can't think of a reason that you couldn't have unisex facilities, as long as each "cubicle" was private, which is what I think you are providing at the moment.

That's what we have at my workplace - a unisex changing room with lockers and three individual cubicles.  I can't see any reason why you can't have a single one-person unisex changing room / cubicle.

As to why bother (asked elsewhere in the thread) - because encouraging staff not to drive is generally considered a good thing. 

There are lots of 'good things' we do for staff that aren't mandated by law - like a shuttle minibus to the train station, providing tea and coffee, sometimes there's even a Christmas party.  Why so miserable about measures to try and improve matters for people at work? (We also provide car parking spaces, and they aren't requried by law either.)

Our changing rooms are variously used by cyclists (I'm very pleased to report we have more bikes parked at our head office than cars, most days), people that walk from the station and change their shoes or leave their coat there, motorbikers (who seem to get wetter than cyclists, or maybe their clothes soak up more water), people that go for a run at lunchtime, and I guess we'd even let a car-driver use it if they wanted to change to go out one evening before going home.

Edited by user 06 December 2021 15:33:47(UTC)  | Reason: spalling

I read the original question as being if you do choose to provide this for this male employee, do you also have to provide duplicate facilities for female employees.  I think this may have arisen from the employer's (not the poster's) interpretation of equality law, rather than H&S law.  I agree with the point made that the facility can be considered unisex so there is no gender issue.