Fire drill has left me in a lot of pain.

elsien

Just out of curiosity, how was the decision made as to who was to be your buddy and wait with you? And what if they're not there - sick, or on holiday or something.
I do think it's a big ask of someone in the event of a real fire if panic sets in and reason goes out of the window. And as a previous poster said, it's putting 2 people at risk.
My workplace has clear guidelines that if people (with learning disabilities) won't/can't evacuate, we are to leave them in their rooms behind the fire doors and not to stay with them.

dori2o

elsien wrote: »

Just out of curiosity, how was the decision made as to who was to be your buddy and wait with you? And what if they're not there - sick, or on holiday or something.
I do think it's a big ask of someone in the event of a real fire if panic sets in and reason goes out of the window. And as a previous poster said, it's putting 2 people at risk.
My workplace has clear guidelines that if people (with learning disabilities) won't/can't evacuate, we are to leave them in their rooms behind the fire doors and not to stay with them.

I had to ask the 3 people listed on my evacuation plan if they would like to volunteer to be a buddy.

dickydonkin

dori2o wrote: »

The Safety officer wasn't too happy when I told them, and said she will speak to her manager as she believes if I didn't evacuate it could be classed as a Conduct and Discipline issue. However I have the full backing of my team, leader and his manager.

I despair at times - I really do.

I would suggest your Safety Officer gives herself a shake and instead of attempting to detract from her companies inadequate fire safety arrangements by considering disciplinary action against you, she gets her backside into gear and sorts out the blatant fire safety shortcomings that she is partly responsible for.

I hope your injuries get sorted OP and also your company puts in place a sensible fire safety and evacuation policy that takes your personal circumstances into consideration.

marybelle01

dickydonkin wrote: »

I despair at times - I really do.

I would suggest your Safety Officer gives herself a shake and instead of attempting to detract from her companies inadequate fire safety arrangements by considering disciplinary action against you, she gets her backside into gear and sorts out the blatant fire safety shortcomings that she is partly responsible for.

I hope your injuries get sorted OP and also your company puts in place a sensible fire safety and evacuation policy that takes your personal circumstances into consideration.

With any luck the union and the manager will do the shaking. Bullying a disabled person by threatening them with discipline for being disabled shouldn't be tolerated.

clairec79

Surely when everyone, ablebodied, was accounted for and the building 'fit' for renentry so to speak, the fire warden should have gone to the stairwells where those of you who had plans were waiting and if you were marked that you followed procedures.

You do have to 'evacuate' to YOUR assigned assembly point - the fact that that point is inside the building is beside the point (ie in a firedrill you can't stay in your office and ignore it, but you can stay inside the building on your floor)

sagalout1954

There is no 'disciplinary action' which would be successful.

In the event of a fire you have clear instructions on what you must do, therefore in the event of a drill you must follow the exact same instructions. That's the point of a drill - doesn't matter if there are no firemen coming.

In a drill you are all rehearsing what you have to do in the event of a real fire. The staff fire officer for the rest of your departments muster point must rehearse ALL his/her responsibilities, by that I mean ensuring he/she is crystal clear that they must inform the firemen of your whereabouts inside the building for 'rescue'.

If your drills vary from what you are actually supposed to do, then they're not a true drill are they. What if, in the event of a real fire, your staff fire officer forgets to inform the firemen of your whereabouts because he/she hasn't had it drilled into them during the drills!!!

This is ridiculous. Stand your ground (when your knee is better). If the alarm goes off, you go to your stairwell muster point and wait. Though I don't agree that you should be accompanied there by others.

At my previous job we had a couple of offices which had additional fire proofing. The less able bodied had to go to those, but not accompanied by anyone else - we had to leave them.

dori2o

Just been advised by a Union H&S officer that there will very shortly be another drill where everyone MUST again evacuate the building as the last drill was not good enough to enable the business to keep its H&S accreditation.

The H&S officer apparently asked what the consequence would be of not evacuating and was told it would be a Gross Misconduct Conduct and Discipline matter.

To his credit he is trying to find out when the drill wil be so I can either be out of the building, or at least on the ground floor when the alarm sounds so I don't have to climb down all those stairs.

I have said to him I am not evacuating the next time. I don't care what the consequences, but if it is C&D I will take it as far as I can, to tribunal and the national press if I have to.

If I am somehow forced to evacuate I will claim compensation for the physical and mental effects of the significant increase in my pain.

I feel I should put this in writing to them so they are under no illusions of exactly what the consequences of there actions will be.

Any advice?

Sambucus_Nigra

dori2o wrote: »

its H&S accreditation.

What H&S accreditation...would be my question.

And I would follow whatever instructions are relevant to your evacuation, so someone will need to do the thing that would need to be done to get you safely out of the building.

Yorkie1

Did you already put the previous pain and injury into the official workplace H&S log?

That will back up any claim for work-related injury and compensation.

I also tend to agree with the other poster who says that your personal evacuation plan is to go to X place, so that is what should be rehearsed.

dickydonkin

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

What H&S accreditation...would be my question.

And I would follow whatever instructions are relevant to your evacuation, so someone will need to do the thing that would need to be done to get you safely out of the building.

Possibly some ISO accreditation - but whether the fluency of an evacuation (or lack of it) would compromise accreditation is another matter.

Be careful what you 'put into writing' OP - as this could come back to haunt you. Dont blatantly refuse to do anything - you are legally required to cooperate with your employer to fulfil his statutory obligations in respect of health and safety.

As SN has stated above, let others worry about your evacuation as required by the company and don't place yourself at risk by deviating from those requirements.

As you cannot manage to negotiate the stairs safely and without risk to yourself (which is the case based on the previous evacuation) then wait for your 'buddy' to assist.

The whole point of fire drills is to determine problems that may arise in a real situation and to resolve them. If they haven't resolved your problem, then the same issues are going to arise again.

If the evacuation again turns out not to meet the required 'standards', then the company will then surely realise their evacuation arrangements are not fit for purpose.