Introduction to Fire Safety Management

Figure 1.13
Cooperation and coordination with others
Persons working in host employer’s or self-employed 
person’s undertakings
Host employers must ensure that the employers of 
people working in the host employer’s undertaking 
are given comprehensible information on risks to the 
employees’ health and safety and any control meas-
ures taken by the host employer to minimise the risks. 
Host employers also have to provide employees of 
other organisations with comprehensible information on 
the risks to their health and safety such as emergency 
response procedures.
Capabilities and training
This part of the regulations requires employers to con-
sider their employees’ capabilities prior to assigning 
tasks and also ensure that in specifi ed circumstances 
their employees are provided with adequate health and 
safety training. In addition employers should also estab-
lish a system to enable them to provide refresher train-
ing where appropriate and to adapt training to take 
account of new or changed risks to health and safety. 
Such health and safety training must be conducted dur-
ing working hours.

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Introduction to Fire Safety Management
12
Employees’ duties
Employees’ duties are twofold in that they should use 
all work items provided by their employer in accordance 
with the training and instructions they have received. 
Employees are also duty bound to inform their employer 
(and other persons who could be at risk) of any work 
situation which they consider represents a serious and 
imminent danger, and any shortcoming in the employ-
er’s protection arrangements.
Temporary workers
Temporary workers, together with those workers work-
ing on a site on behalf of another company (e.g. contract 
cleaners) and self-employed persons, must also be pro-
vided with specifi ed health and safety information before 
they commence their work for the employer.
New or expectant mothers
The regulations relate to employers of women of child-
bearing age to include in their risk assessments risks to 
new or expectant mothers. Where there are such risks, 
and they can be avoided by altering working conditions 
or hours of work, this should be done. If it is not reason-
able to alter working conditions, or hours of work, or this 
would not avoid the risk, the employee should be sus-
pended from work.
New or expectant mothers who work at night should 
be suspended from work if they have a certifi cate from 
a medical practitioner or midwife showing that this is 
necessary for their health or safety.
Employers are not duty bound to avoid risk unless 
they have been notifi ed in writing by an employee that 
she is pregnant (certifi cate from a medical practitioner 
or midwife), given birth within the previous six months, 
or is breast feeding.
Protection of young persons
Every employer must ensure that young persons 
employed by them are protected from the additional risks 
which they are exposed to as a consequence of their 
lack of experience, low awareness of risks, and lack of 
physical and mental maturity. Young persons must not be 
employed for some specifi ed tasks including tasks which 
are beyond their physical or psychological capacity, for 
example tasks:
➤
Which involve harmful exposure to agents which 
chronically affect human health
➤
Involving harmful exposure to radiation
➤
Which pose a risk from extreme heat or cold, noise, 
or vibration.
It is permitted for young persons to carry out such tasks 
in the workplace provided that adequate training and 
supervision are given.
An employer will therefore be required to complete a 
full assessment of risks prior to young persons undertak-
ing work.