Workplace environment

Your legal responsibilities

You are required to keep the workplace safe, healthy, and equipped with appropriate welfare facilities for all employees, including those with disabilities.

By law, a workplace is any premises or part of premises that isn't domestic and is available to any person for work. This includes any outdoor areas used for work and any modifications, extensions or conversions under your control where your employees work.

Which laws apply?

• The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992; or
• The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993

Risk assessments

Carry out the 5-step approach to risk assessments to evaluate whether your workplace meets the necessary standards.

Check if there are enough toilets and washbasins, access to drinking water, and appropriate areas for rest and meals.

Assess whether the environment is clean, well-ventilated, kept at a comfortable temperature, properly lit, and has enough space and seating.

Also, ensure that equipment, devices and systems are well maintained in an efficient working order.

Reducing risk

Consider doing the following to reduce risk in your workplace:

Cleanliness and maintenance

Keep adequately clean and in good working order:

• All workplaces, including the furniture, furnishings, and fittings
• Floors, walls, and ceilings inside buildings
• Equipment devices, and systems, including mechanical ventilation systems, and any equipment or devices intended to prevent or reduce hazards.

Ventilation and temperature

Make sure every enclosed workplace has effective ventilation to provide enough fresh or purified air. Any equipment used to achieve this must include a reliable device that gives a visible or audible failure warning, where this is necessary for health or safety.

During working hours, the temperature in all indoor workplaces must be reasonable. Workplaces should be properly insulated where needed, taking into account the type of work and the physical activity of those working there, and measures should be taken to prevent excessive heat from sunlight.

Thermometers should be displayed so employees can easily monitor the temperature, and appropriate cooling or heating equipment, such as fans or improved ventilation, should be provided.

If the temperature remains uncomfortable, you should limit exposure by providing suitable protective clothing, rest areas, and, where possible, adjusting work systems, such as task rotation.

Lighting

Ensure there is enough lighting throughout the workplace to allow people to work and move around safely, using natural light as much as possible.

Light switches should be positioned where they are easy to find, and an appropriate emergency lighting system should also be installed.

Room sizes and workstations

Rooms must be spacious enough to allow people to work safely, with at least 11 cubic metres per person, excluding any space more than 4.2 metres above the floor.

Workstations must be appropriate for the tasks being carried out, with suitable seating and a footrest provided if necessary.

For outdoor workstations, workers should be protected from poor weather where reasonably possible, and must be able to evacuate easily in an emergency.

Sanitary conveniences and washing facilities

You must provide appropriate and accessible welfare facilities for all your workers, including those with disabilities. This includes enough toilets and nearby washbasins, with any necessary reasonable adjustments made for people with specific health needs.

Toilets should be separate for men and women unless they are single, lockable cubicles used by one person at a time, and women must have access to suitable sanitary disposal facilities.

Facilities must be clean, well-lit and ventilated, easy to maintain, and equipped with toilet paper, running water, soap, hand-drying facilities, and showers where work is particularly dirty.

Drinking water, rest facilities and clothing

You must provide a sufficient supply of clean and safe drinking water, and if reusable cups are used, there should be a convenient place to wash them.

Staff should have a suitable space to hang their personal clothing, and if they need to change for work, they must have a proper area to do so, along with storage for their clothes.

Suitable, smoke-free rest facilities must also be available, particularly for staff who cannot remain at their workstations for health and safety reasons. Workplaces must also have appropriate eating areas with enough tables and chairs, including accessible seating, and provide rest facilities for pregnant and nursing workers.

Disabled persons in the workplace

Where needed, parts of the workplace - such as doors, passageways, stairs, showers, washbasins, toilets, and workstations - that are used or occupied by disabled employees must be arranged to accommodate their needs.