aibu that aggressive dog which has bitten 3 work colleagues should not be at work

[Jayfee]

My son came home with a red swollen dog bite wound on his arm yesterday. He is the third person to be bitten since the boss started bringing his dog to work. There is another dog also in the office which is no problem. The boss is apologetic, but dog still roams freely. The problem is that the people in the office are nervous of upsetting the boss and riskng their jobs by making too much fuss. Any suggestions? Caninicide ( if that word exists) is not an option

The boss had better sort it out unless he wants to be sued!
Phone ACAS and ask advice on how to handle the situation. You can't be sacked for wanting to work in safety!

report to police as out of control dog?

is the skin broken? tge he needs it seen to as animal bites can be ery dangerous.

Your son needs to make a complaint through either his union or HR. the tack that I would use is that visitors/clients coming to the office might get bitten and then the company would be sued.

if its a small company then he should go speak to the dog warden at the local council for advice. they have all sorts of leaflets and he could put one, prominently on his bosses desk. also the health and safety at work act places a duty of care on employers to give their employees a safe place to work. it isn't safe with the dog there and as it has bitten him I would be ringing environmental health and asking to speak to their health and safety team about this. any complaint is anonymous though of course the boss will know it is someone who works there and has been bitten.

it really needs everyone in the office to take collective action because then he cant single someone out and sack them.

no one should be working in an environment where they are this worried about their safety.

Serious safe guarding issue.
Bringing a dog to work even if its as daft as a brush is bloody ridiculous.

"You can't be sacked for wanting to work in safety."

1000 yys to this

It's very unusual for a dog to bite unprovoked. I'd assume the dog was in pain or mental distress.

Perhaps, if it's raised that way with the boss, he might be more open to leaving the dog at home.

Show him links like this positively.com/dog-behavior/behavior-problems/stress/ and advise him to take the poor thing to the vet to have physical pain ruled out.

Bringing a dog to work even if its as daft as a brush is bloody ridiculous.

Er... disagree. We have 2 in on a regular basis (although rarely on the same day) and having a pooch to fuss it chills everyone out. That said though, they are both (mostly) well behaved.

A dog that bites should not be allowed anywhere though - is the boss doing anything to sort the behaviour out? Would imagine the office is not the only place he bites. Dangerous dog.

report to police as out of control dog?

Its on private property, not public, therefore its not breaking the law

the employers ARE breaking the law Dunk if they fail to provide employees a work place with due regard to their health, safety and welfare.

its no different to expecting them to go up ladders that aren't properly secured or to drive a fork lift with no training. its a breach of the employers dutys under the HASAW etc Act.

HASAW etc Act is enforced either by the local authority - environmental health or by the HSE depending on the nature of the business.

Its on private property, not public, therefore its not breaking the law

that has changed

It's not OK for ONE person to be bitten at work, let alone three!

I agree with those saying call ACAS. I'd call the police too.

How old is your son?

I'm a dog sitter and over the years have been bit by anxious or aggressive dogs, or accidentally while breaking up rough play. Clients are only permitted to enter the dog area when I deem the dogs to be suitable and them to be sensible. Your ds's boss it a divk and needs to wise up. He will get slaughtered in court, if someone gets seriously hurt. He may even do jail time.

Meant to add, dog bites are really really painful.

Maybe an anonymous report to the RSPCA. Terrible way to treat your pet.

Perhaps, if it's raised that way with the boss, he might be more open to leaving the dog at home.

Bollocks to that. Why should people handle this with kid gloves when his dog has bitten THREE members of staff?

I agree, it's not unlikely that the dog is suffering in some way, but while I think the dog needs to be treated with compassion I've no such sympathy for the owner.

Its on private property, not public, therefore its not breaking the law

Not true. A dog is not allowed to bite people regardless of where it is.

Unbelievable, is your son working on a slave plantation?

Thanks for all the advice. I am going to speak to him this evening. Caninicide was my joke about killing the dog not being an option. In a job situation where the boss is in the office and so indulgent of such badly behaved dog,dealing with the situation as an employee is not straightforward as it can affect your working relationship and prospects. Obviously the boss wouldn't directly link any action to dog complaints, but there were several redundancies a few months ago and my son was relieved to keep his job. My son is 30 yrs old and just recently moved home so I have to respect he is an adult and try not to be too mumsy. That is hard as I spent last night fretting in case the bite goes septic. I am angry that a boss behaves this way. If that dog is like that at work, I think it will be a danger elsewhere. I am definitely going to try and find out more details this evening. If I had ever been bitten at work I would have made a big fuss.

No ,Atenco, apparently its on trend to take inbred French bulldogs and suchlike to work in trendy design offices.

3 times! He should have stopped bringing him after the first time!

If he goes to A&E with that bite (and the boss can hardly sack him for seeking medical attention), and tells them that his boss’s dog bit him and two other people, A&E may well contact police themselves, or offer to contact them for him. Might give your son some deniability?

And if he hasn’t sought medical advice he should, dog bites are nasty and get infected quite easily. It’s been a while since I worked in A&E, but we used to give prophylactic antibiotics for animal bites.

If they tried making your son redundant then a good employment lawyer could make a good case for the 'coincidence' of the redundancy coinciding with your son saying something about the dog.

To give context..son was wearing new leather shoes and sitting at his desk, dog ran up and started biting the shoe, son pulled dog off, dog bit him. Don't know about the other two people who were bitten. Boss very apologetic and has said he will take the dog to dog training but the dog is still at work today. I have had two pet dogs in the past for twenty years but neither dog ever bit anyone.