An analysis of employers legal responsibilities regarding employees safety and comfort.

Every employer has a "duty of care". This obliges the responsible manager and the organisation as a whole to ensure that the employee does not suffer any undue health or safety risk whilst carrying out their work.

The legislation dating back to the old Factories, Offices and Railways Act of 1948, generally states that any tools or equipment provided must be "fit for purpose".

Within the Display Screen Equipment work regulations dating back to 1992, is a section that requires the employer to "Assess the risk to the health and safety of their employees and to anyone else who may be affected by their activity, so that the necessary preventative and protective measures can be identified", and to "Make arrangements for putting into practice the health and safety measures that follow from risk assessments"

The guidance booklet published by the HSE gives guidelines about who is at greatest risk bearing in mind the following:

1. The dependency of using the VDU as part of the Job.
2. The discretion that employee has in using or not using the equipment.
3. Any significant training that maybe required.
4. If the use is prolonged ( defined as greater than 1 hour)
5. Is the task carried every day?
6. Does it require fast information transfer (are they under deadline pressure?).
7. What is the criticality of any errors made?

Following this analysis, a recommendation based upon individual circumstances can be made. The guidance on what the individual must have to do their work is contained within the relatively new British Standard BS EN ISO 9241 "Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTSs) - part 5: Workstation layout and postural requirements."

This again is a very general document because the government cannot write one specifically for each task or organisation. There are a variety of workers who use a VDU from accountants and lawyers to geologists, architects, finger print analysts, and even air traffic controllers! Ironically, most successful RSI cases are not with the more technical workers, who are usually automatically provided with very ergonomic workplaces, but with secretarial and journalistic types who are self -motivated and carry on through the pain barrier to meet deadlines!

"For input device use, the height of the support surface should allow comfortable and efficient posture of the upper arms, forearms and hands. The furniture should therefore be sufficiently flexible to allow postural changes and to provide sufficient comfort to conduct the tasks efficiently. The work surface should be height adjustable and when required by task, also tiltable".

As you are well aware the human body, and particularly the back, is very flexible until an injury occurs. It is at this point that most organisations react to the situation and if appropriate provide an adjustable desk and chair, the flexibility of which allows the employee to carry on working with minimal or no pain. With so many working days being lost in the nation due to back and musculo-skeletal problems, legislation has been put in place to urge companies to take a proactive, educational approach encouraging best working practices based on the fact that prevention is better than cure!

Therefore, if you have correctly performed a risk assessment on an individual, who by nature of your business is probably already suffering from a postural problem, and have stated that in your opinion that person should have an adjustable desk to fulfil there function, the organisation must take steps to provide that equipment.

Current HSE regulations 1992(Display Screen equipment) guidance documents refer to the International (ISO), European (CEN Comite De European Normalisation), and British (BS) standards.
The main standard developed is the BS EN ISO 9241

Current legislation in particular BS EN ISO 9441-5:1999. Covers all aspects of visual display screen work, including computer equipment, Furniture, task, environment layout, and software.

Below are several sections from the current standard BS EN ISO 9241-5 1999

QUOTE 4.3 FIT

"Good fit is needed for the intended user population including USERS SHARING WORKSTATIONS and users with special needs, e.g. handicapped persons.
Fit can be accomplished by furniture built for a specific use or user, or be provided in a range of sizes and forms or by ADJUSTABILITY and COMBINATIONS thereof.
Since, except under special circumstances, workstations cannot be custom made for individual users, some ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF ENSURING A GOOD FIT ARE REQUIRED. The extent to which the workstation provides a good fit between the requirements of users and their work should be of primary consideration."

QUOTE 4.6 MAINTAINABILITY- ADAPTABILITY

"WORKSTATION DESIGN SHOULD ALSO FACILITATE ADAPTION OF FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT IN RESPONSE TO CHANGING REQUIREMENTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES."

QUOTE 5.2 POSTURES - 5.2.1 Design reference posture

In order to articulate acceptable requirements for comfort and performance with respect to body dimensions it is important to specify a design reference posture for purposes of specifying anthropometric data.
While certain empirical evidence has indicated that the posture so specified could be comfortable for users carrying out certain tasks over short periods. IT DOES NOT REPRESENT THE OPTIMUM POSTURE OR POSTURE TO STRIVE FOR.

For purpose of referring to relevant anthropometric data, the following reference posture should be used:
a) the thighs positioned approximately in a horizontal position and the lower legs vertical; the seat height should be at, or a little below, the poplieal height of user;
b) the upper arms hanging vertically with the forearms horizontal;
c) no deviation or extension of the wrists;
d) AN ERECT SPINE;
e) the sole of the foot making an angle of 90° with lower leg;
f) no twisting of the upper torso;
g) the line of sight between horizontal and 60° below the horizontal

QUOTE 5.4

"For input devise use, the height of the support surface should allow comfortable and efficient posture of the upper arms forearms and hands".
The furniture should therefore be sufficiently flexible to allow postural change and to provide sufficient comfort to conduct the tasks efficiently.
THE WORK SURFACE SHOULD BE HEIGHT ADJUSTABLE, AND, WHEN REQUIRED BY THE TASK TILTABLE."

However it should be remembered that these are only minimum requirements and there is no reason for employers not to exceed these as it can only benefit, the current requirements that most organisations face.

In short it is always beneficial to "err on the side of caution" with dealing in particular with any "risk" situation.