| For Premium and Premium Plus customers, Graphite provides a HR Consultation Service. As part of our regular monthly review in HR e-ssentials Graphite HRM provides you with an insight into the type of queries we get through this consultation service.
Q. Is it true that legislation requires our company to train staff in Fire Safety and First Aid?
A:
The short answer to this question is, yes. There is a legal
requirement on each employer to comply with health and safety
legislation. Section 11 of the Safety, Health and Welfare
at Work Act, 2005 states that an employer’s duties include
taking measures in relation to first aid, fire-fighting and
the evacuation of employees, and any other individuals present
in the place of work. This has to take into account the nature
of the work and the size of the place of work.
To meet this requirement, an employer must arrange the following;
-
Preparation of adequate plans and
procedures to be followed and measures to be taken in
the case of an emergency or serious and imminent danger.
-
The implementation of such plans and
procedures, and monitoring of their implementation
-
Contacts with appropriate emergency
services, especially with regard to first aid, emergency
medical care, rescue work and fire-fighting.
-
Nomination of employees who are required
to implement these plans, procedures and measures
And
-
Adequate training and equipment for
those employees that have been nominated, taking into
account both the size of, and specific hazards relating
to, your place of work.
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Q: Can I avoid liability in harassment claims if I have implemented a Dignity at Work policy in my organisation?
A: No,
the code of practice on harassment and sexual harassment issued
by the Equality Authority and the decisions issued by the
Equality Tribunal indicate that the production of a Dignity
at Work policy is insufficient to avoid liability.
All employers need to ensure that this policy
is communicated to all employees, and also accessible to them.
Adequate training for employee and managers should also be
provided.
The following activities are steps you need
to take
- Prepare a comprehensive policy and include in your employee handbook
- Give every employee a personal copy of the employee handbook/policy
- Require employees to sign on receipt of the employee handbook/policy
- Include a presentation of the policy to all new staff, and in the case of a new policy to all employees.
- Communicate regularly the importance of compliance with the policy.
- Train managers how to handle an informal complaint. (It is often the manager’s lack of or inappropriate response to an informal complaint that leads to them failing to defend their case in the Equality tribunal.)
- Train senior management and HR staff in the procedures for mediation and formal investigations.
- Implement and monitor your procedures to ensure compliance.
Following this, should there be a complaint,
a full comprehensive complaints procedure should be invoked
in line with requirements in your policy (which should reflect
the code of practice on harassment (S.I. No. 78 of 2002).
We trust that HR e-ssentials will be of
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.
Disclaimer - This is not
a legal service, all suggestions will be based on HR best
practice.
You should seek independent legal advice before making any
decisions.
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