No Horseplay at Work
Rough, boisterous play or pranks in the workplace can have serious consequences. We look at key cases involving practical jokes at work and offer tips on how to prevent horseplay.
What is horse play?
Playing around, racing, grabbing, thoughtless vehicle operation, social pressure, harassment, and unauthorised contests are activities often encouraged by ‘practical jokers’ who pressure other colleagues to get involved. Playing jokes and having fun with colleagues can break up the day, provide stress-relief and make work more interesting, however horseplay can take this too far and put workers at risk.
Cases involving horseplay are common in industrial workplaces such as construction sites, and often where forklift trucks are used. But other cases have included pharmacies, hospitals and offices where pranks such as pulling out a chair has resulted in injury. Regardless of the sector, it is management’s responsibility to ensure all employees have access to a safe, respectful and harassment-free place to work.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 does not specifically discuss horseplay but does make requirements for employees regarding health and safety.
Section 7 of the Act requires employees to ‘take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work’.
Section 8 requires that no person shall intentionally interfere or misuse anything provided in the interests of health, safety, and welfare. These duties extend to avoiding silly or reckless behaviour, and those who fail to comply with these duties may make themselves liable to be prosecuted.
However, acts that are not directly related to work, and are more of a personal nature will not be within scope, such as an employee assaulting a supervisor because he believed the supervisor had stolen his wallet.
It is most likely that employees will be prosecuted under section 7 where they have shown a reckless disregard for health and safety, and such disregard has resulted in serious risk.
Who is responsible?
It is a common misconception among employees that health and safety is the sole responsibility of the employer and if an accident or incident were to occur due to horseplay, that resulted in the injury of another person, it would be the employer that would have full responsibility. However, pranks at work that injure or threaten to injure another person may be the subject for individual prosecution against the person responsible. The law of vicarious liability has been steadily expanding, but there are areas where responsibility is still unlikely to arise on the part of the employer.
Last month IOSH magazine reported on Chell v Tarmac [2020] EWHC 2613, the latest decision to demonstrate that it will be difficult for an employee to succeed where they have been the victim of a practical joke played on them by a colleague.
Employers cannot rule out that horseplay at work can result in injury and there are cases where they can be held liable for the actions of their employees. To help prevent this, they need to have appropriate policies and procedures in place relating to horseplay that informs employees of the consequences of inappropriate behaviour at work and set out clearly what is considered acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.
Tips to prevent horse play.
Employees should:
• not engage or participate in any type of unsafe behaviour or horseplay, initiate it, or get pressured into participating in it.
• follow all regulations and work rules to ensure the safety of individuals or other employees.
• ensure protective equipment is used properly and operating machinery is in good repair and does not present a hazard.
• report those behaving in an unprofessional or unsafe way to a supervisor or manager.
Managers should:
• provide a safe and healthy work environment for all employees.
• take all precautions necessary to protect the safety and health of employees.
• outline policies against workplace horseplay in your employee manual
• educate and train employees on workplace safety.
• be an example of professionalism and not engage in any inappropriate behaviour or horseplay.
Contact us if you require further information.
Work vehicles and COVID measures
Work vehicles, like other workplaces are subject to the relevant home nation Government secure guidelines.
In England, employers should be following the hierarchy of risk control measures for vehicles and, in particular, should avoid the sharing of vehicles if possible.
Where vehicles must be shared, social distancing requirements should be applied where this is practicable.
Additional measures that the employer should consider noted in the guidance include:
Employers implementing a shift or pairing system such as noted should be keeping appropriate records of employees in pairings so as to assist the NHS Test and Trace service where necessary.
Any employee showing symptoms of Covid-19 should clearly not attend work and should arrange for a Covid-19 test to be undertaken.
The employer should at this stage be identifying any person who is deemed to be a close contact so as to support Test and Trace in identifying close contacts. The definition of a close contact includes:
Where the employee does test positive for Covid-19, those employee contacts falling within the above definitions will be required to self-isolate in accordance with Government guidelines.
It is therefore highly likely, based upon the above definition, that the paired employee may have to self-isolate but ultimately this decision will be made by the Test and Trace service, potentially in consultation with the local public health service.
If you require further information, please contact us.
Driving for Better Business
Driving for Better Business (DfBB), the Government campaign group which encourages work-related road safety, has shared a list of eight things to think about in 2021 when managing drivers at work.
The latest lockdown means those who are managing drivers and vehicles will have to continue to adapt to the current situation and possibly the following scenarios.
Increased demands: Increased demands on home delivery networks carry a high risk of driver fatigue and companies have a duty to manage this, and not impose unrealistic work schedules.
Driver recruitment: Many firms providing essential services have had to recruit large numbers of drivers to keep up with demand and this may well continue into 2021.
Wellbeing: At a highly confusing and stressful time, sensitive management of people is essential for their continued welfare and to keep the business running efficiently.
Unused vehicles: With many working from home, company cars may be getting little if any use. Where possible, these vehicles need to be regularly started and moved, and when the restrictions start to lift, plans need to be in place to ensure a thorough pre-use check, including tyres and fluids, for example.
Scheduled maintenance and servicing: Ensuring full vehicle roadworthiness at all times, including during increased workloads, is essential.
Modal shifts: Many changes in working and vehicle use are likely to become more permanent. For example, business car mileage is likely to stay lower overall, with more working from home and the use of online meeting software.
Outsourced deliveries: Smaller businesses have been supplementing their reduced incomes by taking on outsourced delivery work from the large courier firms and utilising their own vans for local deliveries. Vehicle operators need to make sure this is managed properly.
Housekeeping: The start of the new year is an opportunity to review fleet housekeeping, ensuring policies, procedures and record keeping as are as effective as possible, and look for opportunities to improve.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Employer’s duty of care
As an employer, you have a certain set of legal responsibilities for your staff. This includes ensuring their wellbeing and health and safety.
An employer’s duty of care encompasses a number of duties. The first, and most obvious, is the main overarching duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all your employees, as far as is “reasonably practicable”, as laid out by the Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974.
This includes providing them with a safe and healthy work environment, preventing:
•illness
•injury
•mental ill health.
This duty of care extends to the health, safety and welfare of non-employees as well, eg contractors, visitors, and clients.
The law also requires you to carry out a risk assessment. This will address the hazards in the workplace that may cause harm.
Another duty covers consultation. Legally, you must consult employees or their representatives on the health and safety risks they will face as part of their role, as well as the control measures you are putting into place to keep them safe.
First, a safe work environment is a productive work environment. If staff are ill or injured, they will need to take time off work. If employees have concerns regarding their safety or wellbeing, their attitude towards work will be less positive. Actively promoting employee wellbeing will increase employee engagement, increase productivity and significantly improve your retention rate.
Second, an unsafe workplace will suffer major reputational damage, particularly if an incident occurs. If an employee suffers from a work-related illness or accident, you could be held responsible. It may also lead to employment tribunals and even criminal prosecution.
Duty of care is a legal duty. Failure to plan adequately for the health and safety of employees will constitute a breach of this duty and can lead to visits from the Health and Safety Executive and significant fines.
An employer’s duty of care includes health and safety. You must ensure that suitable safety standards are created with associated safe systems of work. These should cover employees who work from home.
Within this definition is a duty for employee mental wellbeing. That means safeguarding your workers as far as is reasonably practicable from harassment and stress.
Here are some ways you can keep your staff safe, both mentally and physically:
•provide adequate equipment required to complete tasks
•provide health and safety training
•protect staff from discrimination
•have clear lines of communication
•manage and address staff misconduct and grievances.
An employer only has to comply with the duty of care in so far as it is reasonably practicable to do so. The test of what is reasonably practicable is not merely whether preventive measures were physically possible, or even financially possible. The accused employer must be able to show that it has weighed the degree of risk against how much it would cost the organisation — whether in time or money — to put in place adequate precautions. If it would cost a great deal to reduce the risk by only a fraction, you do not need to do so.
Examples of reasonably practicable actions include the following.
1.An employee informs their manager they’re suffering from pain in their wrists from their keyboard. As an employer, you can then provide them with a specialist keyboard, which can help prevent repetitive strain injury.
2.Another example would be to provide extra access points for those in your business with a disability. This will ensure they don’t struggle to exit and enter your premises and shows that you take their wellbeing seriously.
Contact us if you require further information.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Everyone!
2020 will be a year seared in all our memories. It was a year that fundamentally challenged long established certainties about what we think is safe and what we believe is healthy in all areas of our lives. We hope that 2021 brings a brighter future for us all.
We appreciate your business and look forward to working with you in 2021.
If you would like us to write a blog on a particular topic, please get in touch.
Best wishes
