| HR & EMPLOYMENT LAW
Jackie Le Poidevin, Editor-in-Chief, HR Adviser |
Working During a Heatwave: 4 Key Actions to Support Your Staff
Many parts of the UK saw their hottest temperature on record this week and heatwaves seem set to become increasing common unless emissions are reduced drastically. High workplace temperatures can lead to complaints from employees, falling productivity and even problems such as heatstroke, especially if staff work outdoors or in hot environments such as kitchens or some factories. Here, we look at your legal obligations towards your staff in hot weather and give some tips for keeping your workplace cool.
What the Law Says
The law doesn’t specify a temperature at which it’s too hot to work. MPs recently signed an early day motion asking the government to introduce legislation setting a maximum workplace temperature of 30℃, or 27℃ if employees are undertaking physical activity. However, similar calls have been made in the past without any change to the law.
What the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 do state is that you must:
- Ensure workplace temperatures are ‘reasonable’.
- Ensure your workplace has enough thermal insulation, bearing in mind the work being done and levels of physical activity.
- Avoid the ‘excessive effects of sunlight on temperature’.
- Provide enough thermometers so that staff can see the temperature in any indoor workplace.
The accompanying Approved Code of Practice (ACOP) gives advice on what this means in practice.
If an employee can’t (or won’t) come into work because of the hot weather – perhaps because their train is cancelled due to the rails buckling or their child’s school is closing early – you’re not obliged to pay them. It’s unlikely the heat would be a ‘serious and imminent’ danger entitling them to refuse to work.
Practical Steps
The ACOP says the temperature inside a workplace should provide reasonable comfort and adds that a comfortable temperature for most people is between 13℃ and 30℃.
The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers recommends keeping factories at 16℃ and offices at 20℃, although it says highly sedentary workers may still be reasonably comfortable at 24℃. However, humidity, air movement and personal characteristics such as weight, age and sex affect how comfortable people feel, so you should treat any complaints seriously.
So how can you go about protecting your staff in a heatwave? These are some actions you can take:
1. Assess the Risks
- You should assess the risks to pregnant, disabled and older staff, who may be more susceptible to the heat. Use the ideas below to control these risks or, if necessary, you may need to suspend a pregnant worker on full pay until the risk is reduced.
- The Health and Safety Executive has said you should consider carrying out a risk assessment of your workplace if more than 10–20% of employees are complaining about the temperature.
2. Improve Employees’ Comfort
- Let staff start work earlier in the day when it’s cooler.
- Let staff work remotely if possible, as long as their own home will be cooler than the office or they can work from an air-conditioned location such as a nearby café. They can then avoid a hot commute and working in the hottest parts of the day.
- Relax any formal dress code and encourage staff to remove PPE during breaks.
- Provide access to cold drinking water and encourage staff to hydrate regularly and take breaks to cool down.
- Arrange for staff to work out of direct sunlight if you can (e.g. on the shady side of your office or under a canopy if they’re outdoors).
- Encourage outdoor workers to use sun protection and wear clothing that covers their skin.
3. Cool Your Workplace Down
- In indoor workplaces without air conditioning, provide fans and open windows during the cooler parts of the day. Leave windows on upper floors open at night if this doesn’t create a security risk.
- In air-conditioned workplaces, make sure staff keep the windows closed so the system can work effectively.
- Provide blinds and encourage staff to close these on sunny days.
- Move heat-producing equipment such as photocopiers away from working areas.
- Check lights and equipment are turned off when not needed.
- Upgrade your workplace’s insulation and install air conditioning or ventilation if necessary.
- Maintain your air conditioning in line with the manufacturer’s instructions.
4. Get Your Communications Right
- Tell staff what measures you’re putting in place and what they can do to keep cool.
- Encourage staff to talk to their manager if they’re finding the temperature uncomfortable.
- If staff work outdoors, train them and their managers to recognise the signs of heat stress and to warn colleagues if they’re starting to get sunburnt.
| HEALTH & SAFETY
Michael Ellerby, Editorial Board Member, Health & Safety Adviser and Risk Assessment & Compliance |
HSE Announce School Inspections to Review Asbestos Management
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) considers asbestos to be the single greatest cause of work-related fatality in the UK, currently responsible for the deaths of around 4,500 people each year. Many buildings constructed before the year 2000 contain asbestos either as part of the build or as a result of refurbishment work. If you manage such a building as part of your school – or any other business premises – then you must manage your asbestos. It can adversely affect your employees, children if you are responsible for a school and any contractors working on your premises. They may be made seriously ill, may eventually die, and you could face court action leading to substantial fines and imprisonment.
What is Happening and When?
The HSE has announced that it will be carrying out a programme of inspections to primary and secondary schools in England, Scotland and Wales from September 2022 onwards. The inspections will be assessing how schools are managing the risks from asbestos within the school estate and how they are meeting the duty to manage requirements under Regulation 4 of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
The regulations place duties on those with responsibility for the maintenance of work premises, including schools, to manage the risk from asbestos. For the majority of schools, this will be the employer.
Will these Visits be Unannounced?
No: the inspection visits will be undertaken by HSE inspectors who will contact the school before the visit and arrange a suitable date and time for the inspection. The HSE inspectors will need to speak to someone with knowledge of how asbestos is managed by the school and may also ask to see certain documentation in advance of the visit e.g. your asbestos register and management plan.
What Should Schools Do to Prepare for these Inspections?
It is essentials that controllers of premises, including schools, ensure that they are meeting the requirements of the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. In advance of the inspections, schools may wish to review (and possibly update) their current arrangements and check how well they are complying. The requirements under the regulations include:
- Taking reasonable steps to find out if there are asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) in the school premises and, if so, the amount, where it is and what condition it is in (such as through an asbestos [management] survey).
- Presuming that materials contain asbestos, unless there is strong evidence that they do not.
- Making, and keeping up to date, a record of the location and condition of any ACMs or materials which are presumed to contain asbestos.
- Assessing the risk of anyone being exposed to fibres from the materials identified.
- Preparing an asbestos management plan (AMP) that sets out in detail how the risks from these materials will be managed (this may involve regular inspections).
- Taking the necessary steps to put the plan into action.
- Periodically reviewing and monitoring the plan and the arrangements, and acting on the findings, so the plan and arrangements remain relevant and up to date.
- Providing information on the location and condition of the materials to anyone who is liable to work on, or disturb them, such as school maintenance staff and contractors.
Not Sure what to Do?
If in doubt, seek professional advice. Asbestos is too serious a matter to leave to chance. Consider talking to your health and safety consultant, your insurers, or other building risk specialists. If you have not done so already, you may need to commission a suitable asbestos survey and then act on the findings and the recommendations.
| PAYROLL
Sarah Bradford, Editor-in-Chief, Pay & Benefits Adviser |
How to Calculate Holiday Pay for Workers on Zero-hour Contracts
Zero-hour contracts can be attractive because of their flexibility – the employee does not need to take work offered under the contract. This can be particularly beneficial to parents who want to work during term time and take time off during the school holidays. With the school summer holidays starting, workers on zero-hour contracts may want to take time off. Where do they stand as regards paid holiday entitlement?
Statutory Right to Paid Holiday
All workers, including part-time workers, casual workers and those on zero-hour contracts are entitled to 5.6 week’s paid leave a year (including bank holidays).
Where a worker is on a zero-hour contract, it can be tricky to work out how much holiday they are due. Consequently, it is easier to work out their holiday entitlement on an accruals basis using the 12.07% rule. This reflects that the annual 5.6 weeks’ leave entitlement is 12.07% of the hours worked, and equates approximately to 7 minutes of paid leave for every hour worked. Using this rule will mean that if a worker works 80 hours in a month they will accrue 560 hours of paid leave (80 x 7 minutes).
It is important to note that the 12.07% rule can only be used to work out holiday entitlement – different rules apply to work out holiday pay.
Calculating Holiday Pay
The way in which holiday pay is calculated depends on the nature of the worker’s contract. Where a worker does not have fixed hours, but works irregular hours, as is the case for a worker on a zero-hour contract, the calculation of a week’s pay for holiday pay purposes is based on their average pay for the previous 52 weeks.
A worker on a zero-hour contract may not work every week. When calculating holiday pay, only those weeks in which the worker was paid are taken into account. If the worker is not paid every week, it may be necessary to go back more than 52 weeks to have 52 weeks of pay on which to base the calculation. However, the count-back period is capped at 104 weeks. A week’s pay is simply the total pay for the 52-week period divided by 52. A week normally runs from Sunday to Saturday; however, if the worker’s pay period is different (for example, Thursday to Wednesday), this can be used instead.
If the employee has not worked 52 weeks in the previous 104, the calculation is based on the number of weeks for which the worker has been paid, and a week’s pay for holiday pay purposes is the average pay for those weeks.
Where an average hourly rate is required this, too, is calculated over a 52-week period (or the period worked where this is less than 52 weeks), taking into account the hours worked in that period and the amount paid for those hours.
For workers on a zero-hours contract, it will generally be easier to deal with holiday entitlement and pay in terms of hours rather than weeks.