Advice Needed - Health & Safety Question

PennySaving

Hello,

I hope you are able to offer me some information in regard to what I consider a health & safety question at work.

My sister is employed as a cleaner of a school for 2.5 hours, 5 nights a week.

As the head teacher leaves around 6 pm she is expected to lock the school up and padlock the school gates.

She is only paid £6.50 an hour which I think is poor considering she is almost doing a caretaker's role.

However, my question is should she be there for this amount of time alone each evening?

Thank you for your input.

Gingernutty

PennySaving wrote: »

Hello,

I hope you are able to offer me some information in regard to what I consider a health & safety question at work.

My sister is employed as a cleaner of a school for 2.5 hours, 5 nights a week.

As the head teacher leaves around 6 pm she is expected to lock the school up and padlock the school gates.

She is only paid £6.50 an hour which I think is poor considering she is almost doing a caretaker's role.

However, my question is should she be there for this amount of time alone each evening?

Thank you for your input.

Every organisation should have a Lone Working policy.

She should have been given a short talk/lesson/booklet about what to do in an emergency, who to contact and so on.

There are certain jobs and working environments where lone working is deeply unsafe and staff shouldn't be left alone - laboratories for example.

There are also certain jobs where lone working is inevitable - house calling carers, district nurses and so on.

There's no legislation about how long one should work alone for but there should be rules about lone working.

Undervalued

PennySaving wrote: »

Hello,

I hope you are able to offer me some information in regard to what I consider a health & safety question at work.

My sister is employed as a cleaner of a school for 2.5 hours, 5 nights a week.

As the head teacher leaves around 6 pm she is expected to lock the school up and padlock the school gates.

She is only paid £6.50 an hour which I think is poor considering she is almost doing a caretaker's role.

However, my question is should she be there for this amount of time alone each evening?

Thank you for your input.

Would you consider it OK if she was a fifteen stone bloke and getting paid £30 an hour?

Rightly or wrongly the employee's gender and rate of pay (assuming it is at least the minimum wage) don't come into this.

Gingernutty

PennySaving wrote: »

Hello,

I hope you are able to offer me some information in regard to what I consider a health & safety question at work.

My sister is employed as a cleaner of a school for 2.5 hours, 5 nights a week.

As the head teacher leaves around 6 pm she is expected to lock the school up and padlock the school gates.

She is only paid £6.50 an hour which I think is poor considering she is almost doing a caretaker's role.

However, my question is should she be there for this amount of time alone each evening?

Thank you for your input.

Undervalued wrote: »

Would you consider it OK if she was a fifteen stone bloke and getting paid £30 an hour?

Rightly or wrongly the employee's gender and rate of pay (assuming it is at least the minimum wage) don't come into this.

The original question appears to be twofold.

One about lone working and one about the responsibility of being a key holder locking up at night.

Isn't there a caretaker for the school?

PennySaving

Hi,

No, no caretaker at the school.

I do understand the point about the possibility of a big burly bloke doing the job. Whether it was a girl or a guy should they be alone, working till 9 pm at night and locking the school up in the dark?

pmlindyloo

Have a read of this

http://www.safeworkers.co.uk/guide-your-rights-when-working-alone.html

and then get your sister to contact her employer (look at her contract - it might be the local authority with her concerns.