Shopworkers' union concerned over HSE risk assessments
The Health and Safety Executive's proposed risk assessment for
shops has caused concern within shopworkers' union, Usdaw.
The new online risk assessments have classified shops as 'low
risk' in terms of health and safety, but Usdaw has said that this
is 'totally wrong.' The union said that shops face threats such as
robbery, meaning that they should not be put into the low risk
category.
It adds that the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE's)
assessment also fails to take into account the other risks faced by
shops, which can vary depending on the type of items sold and where
it is located.
HSE has developed the new risk assessments in a bid to follow up
the recommendations suggested by Lord Young's 'Common Sense, Common
Safety' H&S review. Lord Young classified shops as low risk,
alongside offices and schools.
Usdaw General Secretary, John Hannett, said, “This attempt to
develop an online 20-minute risk assessment tool for so called
'small, low risk shops' reveals all too clearly the impracticality
of Lord Young's belief that health and safety can be reduced to a
simple 'one size fits all' box-ticking exercise.”
Usdaw's Health and Safety Officer, Doug Russell, agreed, saying,
“The nature of the business being assessed and its location is
obviously crucial and this simplistic assessment completely misses
the point that the risks faced by a local bookmakers or off-licence
will obviously be very different to, say, a second hand bookshop or
hairdressers.”