Working conditions

[SoUmmYeah]

I’m a social worker. I’ve worked throughout the pandemic doing home visits etc but we were asked that those of us who worked within a certain distance of our “patch” did our paperwork at home and were provided with laptops for this and only came in to the office to collect PPE. This left the office quieter and less crowded for those who did not live within 30 minutes of work, so they could continue their work as normal at the office.

We’re now being asked to do a phased return to the office, which is fine and I don’t have an issue with it.

My issue is the building we work out of – it’s a 60s prefab “clinic”: think baby immunisations, smoking cessation stuff, podiatry and district nurses. It’s owned by a local GP surgery (so not an LA or NHS building) but they have left the building and have a new one. The building is damp and mouldy, the office we are in is small and overcrowded and we have to hot desk (this isn’t new), despite lots of us having had OT assessments with specific desktop provisions and chairs. I can cope with all of that, I’m used to it in my decade of working for the LA. But now, the tap water has been condemned for drinking and we have been provided with a mains fed water cooler with special filter – that’s fine, except it is now leaking so has been turned off and no one knows when it’ll be fixed (was turned off Thursday), so we have no drinking water. We used to have 3 female toilets, 2 male and 1 disabled. Now we have the disabled and 1 mens as the others are broken and blocked and we’ve been told that because of the state of the drains, we aren’t allowed to poo at work and loo roll has to go in a special bin, not to be flushed. I know Mumsnet thinks pooing at work is a big no-no, but I have a condition which means I can’t control when I have to go, so I often have no choice. We also have no hot water for washing our hands as the boiler is broken and beyond repair and there’s also no heating – ok now, but come winter it won’t be, the building is freezing.

Is having no drinking water and not being able to poo at work legal? I feel like I’m in a comedy sketch at the moment!

Jeez, I wouldn't be going into work until they'd made the facilities fit for purpose or provided somewhere else.

This stuff is regulated - you have to have a certain number of toilets and drinking water available:

www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/workplace-facilities/index.htm

www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/toilets.htm

Who's your health & safety lead? I'd be citing the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 to them for a start!!

Who's your health & safety lead? I'd be citing the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 to them for a start!!

For the building or my directorate?

Print out a large sign which reads:

LADIES

and stick it on the gents toilet door. Job done. As it were.

@Tambora

Print out a large sign which reads:

LADIES

and stick it on the gents toilet door. Job done. As it were.

Gender-neutral would follow the pattern in NHS staff toilets

@Tambora

Print out a large sign which reads:

LADIES

and stick it on the gents toilet door. Job done. As it were.

I'm not really sure how that will things better. The disabled loo is closer to our office and nicer!

Gender-neutral would follow the pattern in NHS staff toilets

It isn't an NHS building. It's privately owned.

I didn't think it would be appropriate to appropriate the disabled loos @SoUmmYeah so I suggested the gents.

And in answer to @TwoAndAnOnion I was responding to the information provided by the OP in respect of the current signage rather than refusing to pander to #whatevergenderisayiamtoday.

I didn't think it would be appropriate to appropriate the disabled loos @SoUmmYeah so I suggested the gents.

It's not solely a disabled loo. Its the only public/ patient loo as well so has always been used by everyone, it's just also accessible. We currently aren't open to the public, so it's only workers using it. It wouldn't be appropriate to use the men's solely, it doesn't have a sanitary bin!

@SoUmmYeah

Who's your health & safety lead? I'd be citing the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 to them for a start!!

For the building or my directorate?

The obligation rests on your employers to provide an adequate work environment within the regulation, so they need to house you in a building that is acceptable. So you should be talking to the health & safety lead of whoever your employer is - I assume that's the local authority.

If your employer is renting the building off the GP surgery who are not properly maintaining the building then it's up to them to slug it out with the landlord as to the conditions of the building under the terms of the lease. But as far as you employees are concerned, the provision of toilets, running water, a safe workplace including the implementation of occupational health recommendations around laptops and chairs rests squarely on your employers' shoulders.

If the building they have rented to house you does not comply with their obligations as employers, they need to move you guys somewhere that does.

Xiaoxiong

Thanks, that's really helpful

Raise to your line manager and then a union if they aren't willing to resolve things!

@Stompythedinosaur

Raise to your line manager and then a union if they aren't willing to resolve things!

My line manager works in the same building. She's already raised it to her manager. We need to do as Xiaoxiong and raise it with health and safety I think.

As well as H&S, are there a disability discrimination implications if Occ Health has identified reasonable adjustments that aren't happening? Or the toilet situation if your condition or anyone else's constitutes a disability?

@WeatherwaxLives

As well as H&S, are there a disability discrimination implications if Occ Health has identified reasonable adjustments that aren't happening? Or the toilet situation if your condition or anyone else's constitutes a disability?

I wouldn't have said it did, but it could. I do need to mindful of where a toilet is.

Where is your union? In my local authority you wouldn't have had time to complain about it on line - they'd have been in and closed the buolding as unfit for employees by now.

I have a bowel condition that is absolutely a disability.

Does it have a more than minor/trivial impact on your ability to do day to day activities, and has it / will it last longer than 12 months? That's assessed on the impact it has with no medication.

That is shocking. I don't have a bowel condition but, blimey. I wouldn't be holding it in all day to suit my employer.

Are you part of a union? I would raise it with them.

Environmental health?

@RaininSummer

That is shocking. I don't have a bowel condition but, blimey. I wouldn't be holding it in all day to suit my employer.

It's not my employer. They aren't asking us to do it. It's the landlord/ building manager. My employer has only just found about it.

I'm working from home tomorrow thankfully.

are there public toilets within 1 mile?
I'd be heading there daily if OP's office was mine.
Not disabled, but no bowels of steel either.

To be honest I'd not be going into the office at ALL until there were enough toilets available, even if there were public toilets nearby (the HSE specifies exactly how many an employer needs to provide, of each, and they must be sex segregated where there are both sexes working). This obligation even extends to providing accessible toilet facilities to delivery drivers to your business, even if they're not your employee - the HSE even specifies that there must be hot and cold running water and soap, let alone the ability to flush dirty loo roll down the loo!

I'd definitely be going down the H&S route , since those regulations apply to employers' duties to all employees from day one on the job. You are entitled to sufficient toilet facilities, drinking water and a clean and safe workplace just by virtue of being an employee, you don't have to show anything other than they are failing in their duty to provide these things.

Then there is the disability discrimination line of attack which you can do in parallel, the only wrinkle is that you can only focus on your own situation and can't raise this on other people's behalf - the individuals who have identified needs will have to do this following a proper procedure (usually you have to give your employer notice of your needs first, have an assessment by occupational health, give them time to implement the recommendations etc before you can raise a grievance). See a useful FAQ here.

Good luck OP!

The fact that you cannot even wash your hands in hot soapy water would be enough for me to refuse to work there.

You aren't allowed to poo at work? How exactly do they expect that to work? I would be refusing to go to the office. I certainly wouldn't be walking a mile to go for a shit in a public toilet. I have IBS.

The H&S at Work Act is there for a reason. Do you have a H&S rep, not sure how it works in the public sector or report straight to HSE.