Pregnancy risk assessment not being followed.

[erised]

I had my risk assessment done at 11 weeks, I'm now 18 weeks, I'm a retail supervisor and there is one manager and 2 other supervisors. One of the things that was on there was that I am not to be the only management on duty due to stress levels and incase of angry customers (which happens often and can be violent). This is fine up until I am set to work with my manager... She calls in sick at least once a week, leaving me by myself to deal with everything. On Friday she left me with only 2 other members of staff on a very busy day which put my stress through the roof.

I am also at high risk of pre-eclamsia and already have high blood pressure along with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome which can cause my joints to dislocate at any time, pregnancy makes this worse. Is she allowed to do this? She even conducted my risk assessment and was adamant I wasn't to run the store alone...

I’d be reporting this to someone higher or HR. Ultimately if you don’t and something does happen you will be equally to blame for not reporting it.

My boss who owns the store is aware but all I got from him was an apology. Should I contact HR instead?

Yes, tell the boss and point out that next time it happens, your only course of action will be to close the store until safe staffing levels are achieved.

Your safety is more important than their profit, but you need to be proactive to make it happen, and mean it.

I have a feeling that it might happen again tomorrow. If it does, I'm calling my boss, I'll tell him I refuse to work unless the risk assessment is followed.