Furlough Laid off work for questioning H&S

Bexkev123

advice received! Thank you everyone who posted with good advice!

Take care 

Galloglass

 I did offer to risk assess and implement solutions to everything

Do you have professional indemnity insurance and the appropriate qualifications. Because if not, no company (or their insurers) would accept a layman's assessment. 

You appear to have volunteered for unpaid leave rather than redundancy. If you actually want redundancy, you better make it clear. At the same time, you might want to apply for Universal Credit in case your stance does not work out.

unforeseen

It sounds like you were trying to think of every reason under the sun why you should stay on furlough. 

sharpe106

As others have said without being qualified how are you able to assess if it is safe or not? By the sounds of it you want the place to be completely risk free, with lets be honest in that kind of environment is never going to work. Although for your point about being quiet and still having a job does your contract have a lay off clause in it?

Bexkev123

sharpe106 said:

As others have said without being qualified how are you able to assess if it is safe or not? By the sounds of it you want the place to be completely risk free, with lets be honest in that kind of environment is never going to work. Although for your point about being quiet and still having a job does your contract have a lay off clause in it?

The government guidelines suggest that risk assessment processes for business should be done in collaboration with staff for covid 19 to spot and minimise risk, I don’t see why this requires me to become a qualified H & S officer. It’s like this, here’s a risk of how I can catch the virus at work, here’s how we follow the guidance to stay as safe as possible to
minimise that risk! I don’t get what’s so hard about that? 

bradders1983

As much as you dont want to hear this, if I was an employer and looking to get rid of people in an industry that is clearly going to be on its knees with reduced capacity etc, the people I would be keeping on the books are those who want to come back without a fuss.

I assume you havent even been into the premises and seen the changes yet? You should have at least done that before doing anything.

sharpe106

Bexkev123 said:

sharpe106 said:

As others have said without being qualified how are you able to assess if it is safe or not? By the sounds of it you want the place to be completely risk free, with lets be honest in that kind of environment is never going to work. Although for your point about being quiet and still having a job does your contract have a lay off clause in it?

The government guidelines suggest that risk assessment processes for business should be done in collaboration with staff for covid 19 to spot and minimise risk, I don’t see why this requires me to become a qualified H & S officer. It’s like this, here’s a risk of how I can catch the virus at work, here’s how we follow the guidance to stay as safe as possible to
minimise that risk! I don’t get what’s so hard about that? 

They can ask for help yes but the responsibility lies with the manager still. If you did it and it was wrong it would be them that were liable not you. The basics of health and safety are as easy as you say but the legality behind it are far more complex. 
Although you did not answer my question about lay off clause in the contract, or are you on a zero hour contract?

Bexkev123

sharpe106 said:

Bexkev123 said:

sharpe106 said:

As others have said without being qualified how are you able to assess if it is safe or not? By the sounds of it you want the place to be completely risk free, with lets be honest in that kind of environment is never going to work. Although for your point about being quiet and still having a job does your contract have a lay off clause in it?

The government guidelines suggest that risk assessment processes for business should be done in collaboration with staff for covid 19 to spot and minimise risk, I don’t see why this requires me to become a qualified H & S officer. It’s like this, here’s a risk of how I can catch the virus at work, here’s how we follow the guidance to stay as safe as possible to
minimise that risk! I don’t get what’s so hard about that? 

They can ask for help yes but the responsibility lies with the manager still. If you did it and it was wrong it would be them that were liable not you. The basics of health and safety are as easy as you say but the legality behind it are far more complex. 
Although you did not answer my question about lay off clause in the contract, or are you on a zero hour contract?

Sorry I missed your question. I don’t have a contract, I wasn’t never given one and never signed one but I was on their payroll as a payee. It’s  part the reason why I wanted some advice, as it all happened so fast for voicing my concern to being laid off.

Bradden

Galloglass said:  Do you have professional indemnity insurance and the appropriate qualifications. Because if not, no company (or their insurers) would accept a layman's assessment. 
You appear to be an expert on H&S - so please tell me what are the approriate qualifications for doing a risk assessment in a bar?

I actually think the OP has acted really responsibly and a decent employer would have welcomed someone who took this seriously. A bad employer will just want to go through the motions and implement the bare minimum.

Bradden

..and to answer my own question - quoting the HSE:
You do not necessarily need specific training or qualifications to carry out a risk assessment. As an employer, however, you must appoint someone competent to help you meet your health and safety duties. A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety.

The OP IMHO clearly meets this threshold from what they have written.

EssJayD

Since when has PI and H&S quals been required to carry out a workplace risk assessment?  LOL

Sounds like you got a dud at Acas, it happens, it does sound like you have been treated unfairly due to raising a H&S issue, wouldn't be surprised if Acas recommend you put a grievance in about this and the lay-off potentially not being provided for in a contract as you haven't seen it, so you get a proper response at least but this might light the touch paper unfortunately.