Law firm warns of considering all health and safety precautions before clean-up work begins
Flood-affected companies whose staff get involved in cleaning-up their business premises must consider carefully all the potential health and safety risks before any work begins, warns City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC).
Nick McMahon, specialist health and safety Partner at RPC, said: “Employers whose premises have flooded are of course going to want to get their businesses back to normal as quickly as possible, so may be diverting staff who cannot work to the clean up instead.
“However, just because the flood is an exceptional situation, it doesn’t mean that the usual health and safety procedures can be ignored.”
He advises; “It is imperative that before any work starts, employers have considered all the potential health and safety issues that staff could encounter – not only any obvious risk to life and limb but also the hidden dangers such as dirty and contaminated flood waters, or staff using potentially dangerous equipment that they are unfamiliar with.
“As well as carrying out risk assessments depending on the nature of the work being asked of employees, staff need to be properly equipped, trained and supervised. The requirements of the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 will need to be at the forefront of managers’ minds. Businesses should also review the type of equipment provided to deal with flooding, and consider whether to add to or even change the basic equipment provided, where necessary.”
