Winter in the Workplace

The shift in seasons has started to become noticeable, the mornings are cold, and the days are getting ever shorter. Autumn is definitely in full swing, and it won't be long before winter sets in, so now is the time to start preparing your business and workforce for the winter months, and the challenges that it can present. 

Heavy rain and snow can cause issues for you and your staff. Then there’s the dangers of icy roads and strong winds causing issues on commuting routes. You may struggle to keep your business open if the weather conditions become too adverse. With so much to consider it’s understandable that you could feel overwhelmed.

Remember that ensuring the health and safety of your workforce is your responsibility and falls under your employers duty of care. Non- compliance with this can result in costly legal action that can cause a huge disruption to your business both financially and reputationally.

To cover all bases and all eventualities, talk to the Health and Safety and Employment Law experts at Croner. Our team of professional advisors can provide the answers to your most burning questions, such as, “do I need to pay staff if I can’t open due to the weather?”. 

Ensure your business remains compliant with both Health and Safety and Employment Law. Call today on 0808 501 6651.  

Winter weather considerations for Health and Safety

Winter in the UK is notorious for poor weather conditions, so making sure that you are prepared for the worst, should ensure that your business can run more smoothly should the weather make things challenging.

Carry out a risk assessment 

The first port of call before you implement any policy changes or adjustments is to conduct a risk assessment. Under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999, this is a legal requirement for employers when it comes to controlling hazards. Whilst you should have already conducted a risk assessment for your business premises, it’s advisable to conduct an additional one in winter, to address the following:

• Identifying potential hazards
• Assess the risk of an accident happening as a result the identified hazards
• Take preventative action to minimise risk

If your company includes more than 5 members of staff, then, you must by law, record your findings in writing. However, if you have fewer than five staff it is still advisable to document this in a risk assessment.

You should also look at the potential hazards that extend to the exterior of your business, and take reasonable steps to mitigate them. This could include examining the following areas:

• Your organisation's car park and the connecting road or driveway
• Pavements and paths leading up to and in the immediate surrounds of your business
• Shortcuts and side entrances
• Any sloped areas

Areas in permanent shade and or flood-prone.

Some of the potential hazards you could encounter are:

• Icy pathways due to freezing temperatures
• Ice on the car park and adjacent roadways, causing hazardous driving conditions
• Wet leaf build up, causing a slippery sludge and blocked drains or gutters
• Wet grass verges
• Poor lighting in areas where there are potential hazards i.e. car parks

There are ways you can take reasonable steps to ensure that you deal with these hazards such as gritting car parks, walkways and roadways into your premises to help prevent ice from forming. Installing lighting in poorly lit outdoor areas and cordoning off areas that are a slip hazard with cones and warning signs. 

Identify hazards inside your business premises

Winter hazards aren’t just limited to the exterior of your premises, there are hazards that the winter weather can bring indoors. 

Wet weather, colder temperatures and darker days can have implications to the safety of your building. 

This can include:

• Slippery flooring in entrances and corridors due to heavy foot traffic in wet weather
• Power cuts, water and gas pipe damage due to freezing temperatures
• Colder working environments
• Poor visibility in dark spaces

You can mitigate the above hazards by carrying out some of the following:

• Installing lighting in dark and poorly lit areas
• Ensure that water pipes and gas pipes are properly insulated and maintained against the cold 
• Install not slip flooring in areas with heavy foot traffic and absorbent mats at entrances. 

As with most procedures pertaining to health and safety, you should carry out regular and thorough checks to ensure that measures put in place are effective and working. 

Create a plan in case of severe weather and disruption

Even with all the risk assessments and preparation, there may be times where the winter weather throws you a curveball and puts either safety at work or getting to work due to driving and road hazards like snow and ice, dangerous. In these instances it’s good to have a clear policy and plan, and communicate this to all staff to ensure the safety of your workforce. 

Working from home

The first option to consider is to permit staff to work from home. This will help remove the risk of disruption.

With mobile technology it’s easier than ever to implement remote working on a temporary basis. It’s a guaranteed way to ensure work is being completed during periods of bad weather. From your employees’ perspective, it removes any anxiety they may feel coming into work.

You should conduct an assessment to see if the weather has affected necessary services. Things like telephone lines, internet connections are often essential to the job role. If any of these are out of service, you can decide that homeworking isn’t applicable.

Impact on staff travel

You can expect staff to make every reasonable effort to get to work. This doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily be able to make it in if the conditions are too severe or that they’ll arrive on time. Sometimes even leaving extra early isn’t enough to prepare for the tricky commute. If you do think the road conditions will be too bad for travel, make sure you notify your employee well in advance.

If the employee is late, you don’t have to pay them for the time they miss. However, it is reasonable to agree on a way for the employee to make up for their lost time. You should have the conversation with the employee as soon as possible to avoid any misunderstandings.

Childcaring emergencies

There may be school closures. If an employee is at work as normal, they may need time off to make childcare arrangements.

Employees have a statutory right to a reasonable amount of time off to deal with emergency situations involving dependants. This will cover the breakdown in care arrangements. This type of time off is usually unpaid, although this will depend on your policy.

When staff cannot make it into the workplace

What if staff can’t make it to work but you stay open for business? In this scenario, you don’t have to pay them (unless your contract says otherwise). This is a harsh stance to take, however, as the absence isn’t their fault.

The first is to consider allowing employees to take short-notice annual leave for this period. This will ensure they’re still receiving full pay. However, they will sacrifice some of their holiday entitlement. Make sure they’re aware of this before agreeing, other options include using banked lieu hours, or making the time up at a later date.

Closure of the workplace

In extreme circumstances, you may need to completely close your business. This is your decision to make, but it’s important to be aware of the ramifications.

First, unless there is a contractual right to places on unpaid lay off, you should pay staff in full. You do this based on the normal hours they would’ve worked if the workplace was open.

The same rule applies if you open later or close earlier. Pay employees for their normal hours, even if they aren’t working them.

Working at height in winter

Those working at height and working outdoors in winter can face a particularly challenging time, and employers should take extra care to ensure the health and safety of employees that have to work with additional hazards, on top of the ones that come with the job.

Wet weather, ice snow and strong winds turn a job that already comes with the hazard of heights into an even more challenging and dangerous role. In extreme weather, operatives that specialise in working at height are usually called in to help with urgent maintenance like downed telegraph wiring, unsafe tree branches, blocked gutters and weather damaged roofing.

With an increase in the number of things needing attention in harsh weather comes a greater number of people working at height in potentially hazardous conditions.

Ensuring safety during winter weather conditions

Be Proactive, be Prepared, have a Plan. This means controlling the risks and providing appropriate PPE for the conditions. So when being proactive:

• Ensure a robust risk assessment is in place before undertaking any operational actions.
• Ensure a safe system of work is in place.
• Ensure buildings are equipped with the correct fall protection systems.
• Ensure all formal mandatory checks and inspections have been undertaken. This includes any harnesses, lanyards and fixings.
• Ensure maintenance is undertaken. This includes proactive repairs or replacements of equipment in a timely fashion.
• Ensure a competent person inspects temporary access. (For example, a scaffold where a person might fall 2 metres or more). Ensure it is inspected when first erected, at weekly intervals, and after high winds or heavy snowfall.
• Train operatives that may need to work at height in the safe system of work. Include training on dynamic risk assessments and pre-use checking of all safety equipment.

These basic steps will help to protect your employees and bring peace of mind. Your workforce will be as prepared as possible and have the right equipment and processes in place to keep them safe.

We know that poor weather brings increased levels of risk. This doesn’t necessarily mean that essential maintenance needs to stop. 

Talk to the Health and Safety advisors at Croner

For all your urgent health and safety queries, talk to our expert team today. We have over 80 years’ experience in helping businesses, just like yours and we’ve built a reputation for offering stalwart, professional and award-winning advice to our clients.

Call today on 0808 501 6651 and ensure your business is compliant with the latest Health and Safety, Employment Law and HR legislation.

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