Work Risk Assessments / Reasonable Requests

[OnMyJourney]

Hey

So I'm 33 weeks pregnant and so far my employers have only done 2 risk assessments, one at about 12 weeks and one at about 21 weeks and I haven't had one since, is this correct? The manager who completed those risk assessments also doesn't work with us anymore and a new manager has taken over, surely being a new manager with a pregnant employee you'd do a new risk assessment?

I work in a bowling alley with arcades, bar and kitchen. This involves a lot of heavy lifting, bowling balls, bending up and down to fix arcade machines, taking in heavy deliveries, fixing bowling lanes. It also involves a lot of long days standing up on my feet.

In my risk assessment I don't feel like enough precaution was taken, in my job I'm still required to jump into bowling bowling lanes to fix them and do lots of other things which could potentially cause injury (don't worry I won't do it if I don't feel safe) but none of this is really covered in my risk assessment?

The one reasonable request that I made was I don't work Friday/Saturday night as they're busy and we're open late, it sucks the life out of me but they've also failed to meet this reasonable request and keep scheduling me for late shifts.

Does anyone have any insight on this? Does this sound right to anyone else? It seems like my workplace don't really care.

Have you asked for a review?
They are being lax, they need to assess your personal risks and not generic pregnancy. It sounds like they have made minimum changes rather than taking a precautionary approach.

My employer does risk assessment shortly after they are informed and again at the start of the third trimester as standard.
It's put on the employee to tell them of medical advice they've been given or changes in their health (not unreasonable, how else would an employer know!)

I’ve only ever had 2 in any of my pregnancies. Also never expected to suddenly be told not to lift things, bend, etc. still took in delivery. As long as you are lifting properly something like a bowling ball isn’t going to cause an issue. My toddler is heavier and I’ve still lifted her throughout. You can request not to work late on a weekend but I wouldn’t really class that as a reasonable request and I don’t see why they would grant it just because they open late and they’re busy.

If there’s something in your pregnancy that means you can’t do normal jobs then you need to let them know and use a degree of common sense about what you can and can’t do. But there’s nothing you mentioned that sounds like it can’t be done just because you’re pregnant.

Hi,

standard is 12 weeks, 21 weeks and 28 weeks afterwards you can do as many as you feel necessary and you can request a review.

As others said working lates/busy shifts not necessarily going to be accepted as there’s nothing riskier about that in particular. They could accommodate if possible but as you said they aren’t doing that.

Jumping into bowling lanes to fix then sounds inappropriate so perhaps approach your new manager or Health and safety for a new risk assessment.

There's no standard. E.g an office job just needs one risk assessment that covers all pregnancies. It depends on the job.

If you feel you are carrying out risky activities eg jumping onto lanes to fix things then request another one.

Special hours and shifts are not an entitlement. They don't need to agree to that.