Friend working in shop - heating broken and it was freezing

dickydonkin

snowcat75 wrote: »

One manager and a scarf child's play, a wrath of company's with whole HSE departments watching your every move, now that's irritating.

Probably more irritating for the HSE department is the litigious society we now live in and the crazy requirements from insurance companies - and stupid posters on here who probably take too much notice of the idiotic articles in the Daily Mail and their clown journalist Littlejohn.

Add to that the H&S directives we have to adhere to from the EU that our own legislation covers quite effectively, then I would suggest you cut some slack for the safety professionals whose sole purpose is to ensure you can go to work and return home safely to your family at the end of the day.

We don't make the rules - we just interpret them and apply them to the particular activities in a given workplace.

If anyone was whinging it was the idiot manager, not the employees who adapted to the conditions by putting on scarves and carried on .

But probably contravened the company dress code - so perhaps the 'idiot manager' referred to on numerous occasions was actually just doing his job!

Again, the company is not breaking any statute law - fact!

ValHaller

dickydonkin wrote: »

But probably contravened the company dress code - so perhaps the 'idiot manager' referred to on numerous occasions was actually just doing his job! [1]

Again, the company is not breaking any statute law - fact! [2]

[1] Effectively you are saying he is a Jobsworth and defending it

[2] Not breaking a Statute Law? So what. It is still contemptible to tell staff off for wearing scarves when the heating has failed.

What I don't think you are grasping is that this is not primarily an issue of H&S (on which topic I generally respect your views) unless you drag in the possibility that a scarf worn under a fleece might trail on some food. What it is about is a small minded idiot manager who is not content to find that his staff are working on through a heating failure, but has to bully them over the measures they have taken to make the job less uncomfortable.

Dunroamin

patanne wrote: »

The symptoms of hypothermia begin at temperatures much higher than freezing & could cause confusion which = mistakes even when standing. 14C is just above the level for a sedentary job. Standing still would not make much difference to that temperature, although moving, such as walking up and down the aisles would make a difference. So the OPs friend is right to be worried about the cold as they could well be blamed for any mistakes made whilst actually suffering from hypothermia. This creeps up on you so that you are totally unaware that you are suffering (I avoided the word victim here!!)

14C is the temperature on a pleasant spring day - are you sure about the hypothermia?

patanne

Sorry I am used to working in °F (so bad translation without a calculator). Certainly 52°F is below the level for the onset when no real movement is involved. After a couple of hours at that temp, even with thermals, scarf & coat on, it becomes difficult to remember which button to press.

patanne

The whole point is they are not being allowed to wear the proper clothing. If someone is working outside they are not normally standing completely still and are probably wearing a scarf & a woolly hat, boots & thick trousers. These people are wearing uniforms plus fleece but no scarf etc.

dandelionclock30

If OP isnt being allowed to wear the correct clothing for the temperature then they need to be making a complaint to the Health and Saftey executive which can be done in an anonymous capacity or getting onto the union about it.
Also if your friend has been there over 2 years they cant sack people for carrying out health and saftey measures.So wearing suitable clothing would come under that.

ohreally

dandelionclock30 wrote: »

If OP isnt being allowed to wear the correct clothing for the temperature then they need to be making a complaint to the Health and Saftey executive which can be done in an anonymous capacity or getting onto the union about it.
Also if your friend has been there over 2 years they cant sack people for carrying out health and saftey measures.So wearing suitable clothing would come under that.

This workplace would be under the jurisdication of the local authority environmental health dept.

Individuals are protected from day 1 if they raise H & S concerns.

Dangermac

ScarletMarble wrote: »

My friend works in a medium sized shop. For 3 days, the heating broke down and it was freezing in the shop!

She works on the customer service desk, which is situated opposite the automatic doors. Customers and staff walk in/out through these doors. She was forced to wear a hat with the shop's name on it and fingerless gloves. She told off for wearing a scarf - even though it was the uniform colours and wore it under the uniform fleece.

She and all of the colleagues were and looked so cold that customers said to them they looked like death warmed up!

The shop has some fridges for cold drinks, yoghurts etc.

I know the law stands that the minimum temp should be 14c. Why wasn't the shop closed? If it was forced to close due to the freezing temps, do the colleagues get full pay?

If I read this thread correctly, the heating was inactive for 3 days. Presumably then, this matter has now been rectified.

Notwithstanding the legalities of the situation, if the matter has indeed been resolved, could you confirm what the ideal solution would be. For example:

- Compensation

- Retrospective permission to wear the scarf on the 3 days that were cold and the heating wasnt working.

- Complaint / disciplinary action against the manager

Please advise what your friend would ideally like to achieve.

DM

Dunroamin

patanne wrote: »

The whole point is they are not being allowed to wear the proper clothing. If someone is working outside they are not normally standing completely still and are probably wearing a scarf & a woolly hat, boots & thick trousers. These people are wearing uniforms plus fleece but no scarf etc.

She's wearing a fleece, hat and gloves over her uniform - I wonder how many of us would be wearing more than that recently when outside.

Intoodeep

patanne wrote: »

Sorry I am used to working in °F (so bad translation without a calculator). Certainly 52°F is below the level for the onset when no real movement is involved. After a couple of hours at that temp, even with thermals, scarf & coat on, it becomes difficult to remember which button to press.

I'm so glad I was sitting down on a chair that I had done a full risk assessment on when I read this post, if I had been in a standing position I may well have sustained an injury in the fall resulting from my almost uncontrollable laughing :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: