Health & Safety gone mad

[lootch67]

I often have to travel all over London as part of my job. Even though I can travel on the tube for free I prefer to take the bike because of the time I save. Some time ago my boss mentioned that he has to do a Health & Safety assesment on my bike etc. We had a good laugh about it and forgot about it. He is a biker himself. This week he calls me in to tell me that I can no longer travel around town on my bike for work purposes as it fails the Health & Safety requirements. He goes on to say that "the company" can't prescribe what mode of transport I use to get to and from work but they can prescribe what I use when at work. Fair enough. My options then is to take the tube or busses when in town or even use one of "the company's" bicyles. The irony is of course that their own figures show that it's far more dangerous to travel in London by bicycle than it is to travel by motorcycle...


Anyway, I replied that I can live with this but he has to understand that I travel to and from work by bike because I prefer to spend 40 - 45 minutes on the bike to 1½ hours on public transport. Therefore I'm not prepared to leave home earlier than I do at the moment and I'm also not prepared to arrive at home later than I do at the moment. "Fair enough" he says. The implications of this is that I can now arrive at work at 9, change into my normal clothes and take public transport to wherever I have to be; quite possibly arriving on site at 11. Then I'll have to leave the site at 15:00 so I can leave the office at 17:00 which means "the company" loses up to 4 hours of my time per day which is more than 50%. And I'm not about to give up my lunch hour!

[alpslapper]

Did he tell you on what basis the bike actually failed the health and safety requirements Just by virtue of the fact it's a bike

Oh wait ...


.. it's an AT ....

Not a Transalp ... ahhhh I do see his point now

[lootch67]

[Whealie]

Cost will be the reason. I put my bike on my businesses and, as my employer, I was obliged by law to do a health and safety risk assessment. I phoned the HSE for specific Advice.
The regulations include the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992. They specify that the employer must provide protective kit that not only offers protection against abrasions and impact etc but that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, is waterproof when needed and so on Basically, to comply, you must buy high-spec kit, which is expensive.
As part of other H&S rules the employer has to provide adequate and on-going training.
All of which is expensive.
First of all, of course, you have to decide if the bike is necessary or if another mode of transport could be chosen. So you can see why employers would choose that. It is not actually cheaper but the cost of someone simply taking longer to do their job doesn't actually appear anywhere in the accounts - theys till get paid the same salary. Advanced motorcycle training and full Gore-tex XCR kit appears as a big chunk of money.

[nomad]

country's gone mad

have heard that miss wet t shirt compititions are now being banned by local councils under health and saftey regs because it could give the girls a chill...
erect nipples can also cause blindness if poked in the eye ,where's that mentioned in the H & S regs...

[Roy]

I have been watching this for a while, the company i am working for (Gleesons) have been taken over by a very large company from the USA.
and although i am a contractor thay have just mentioned the use of bikes and cars for work for all staff including contractors, the outcome of this is both my bike and car are not allowed to be used for work.
I am lucky in having a good boss who has turned a blind eye, but he did show me the paperwork he has been sent, and my Caterham also can't be used for work.
They are talking about cars under 5 years old, over 750KG, with air bags.
and bikes are not to be allowed, will be interesting to see how the dispatch riders and bike taxis will handle this. The information he has are part of a document from the HSE......

so it looks like my mega bike miles are over, funnly enough helicopters and the like are not mentioned.


Roy

[Shep]

I agree with you Nomad this country is complete Dog Sh*te and not worth saving, It has gone health and safety mad.

I can hardly wait to go back to Turkey at least you can have a life there this place is bloody awful, hate it and everything it now stands for

[GeoBloke]

The heightened H&S is a side effect of the American disease called "litigation". It's endemic over there but was obviously spread here as well by a tourist back in the 80's.


Good luck in Turkey, Shep. Lovely country. Lovely people (like most people, not to be confused with their government). Allah korusun.

It may be "bloody awful" here in Blighty but one can make good money, eh?

[moon]

surely, if the employer refuses to allow you to use your own chosen mode of transport (be it bike caterham or microlight jet pack) due to health & safety in the workplace, it is up to the company to provide an acceptable alternative. at no cost to the employée, obviously. I can't believe an employer has the right to oblige an employée to go out & buy a car less than 5 years old with x airbags etc...



tell me i'm not wrong....please...

[phil w]

Im lost