help/advise needed with regards to lack of risk assessment done at work

[crackpotdog]

Just found out assessment was not done for me by employer when i told them i was preggers. internal investigation underway to find out why but i'm wandering what else i should/could do? very p....d off as you can imagine, especially as it transpires some1 else who is preggers now has been stopped doing something i did right up until full term? any advise please?

Are yu still pregnant?

Did you cause yourself or baby any harm?

Is there really any point rocking the boat?

was any harm caused? If not then you have no complaint really. Risk assessments are individual - so just because one pregnant woman is not able to do something doesn't mean no pregnant women should do it - you may not know all the medical details for example. Also - did you ask for a risk assessment? You have to take a bit of responsibility too.

no baby 8 months old now. no obvious harm but am not 100% of poss long term problems?
with egards to rocking the boat, they are all a bunch of ahes and the double standards there are despicable (spelling)!! so yeah if they done wrong big style i'll rock it!!

didn't ask for one as naively,was unaware one was required until 10months later when one is done for colleague

I can't understand why you are so pissed off? Is your job particularly dangerous/risky? Were you harmed in any way becasue one wasn't carried out?

regardless if i was or not, it seems now a preg person cant do exact same thing, so the fact is i could have been which is my problem. dont actually know long term possible effects if exposed

without knowing what the "thing" is then difficult to give advice. It may be that more details have become available re the risks of the "thing" to pregnant women? What was it you were exposed to - perhaps can give some advice re possible long term problems?

but could it not be in her particular circumstances it isn't ok whereas it might have been for you. I thought the onus was on you to initiate it rather than it be done as a matter of course.

I can understand why you're upset about it but things will probably be ok. To other posters, there is a responsibility to do a risk assessment which is the employer's, not the individual concerned. There's an internal investigation being carried out, wait and see if they accept responsibility/blame or try to cover up, and then decide how to react.

its hard to say on here actual details cos know another work person comes on here. risk would be the same for both, or any1 else in fact. Employers i find out now actually do have a legal obligation to do risk assess.

Have a look here. Employer has an obligation to complete a risk assessment once they've been notified in writing of the woman's pregnancy. As you will see down the bottom of that link, any breach of H&S regulations with respect to pregnant women is considered automatic sex discrimination.

However, the time limits for claiming sex discrimination mean that it would be too late for you to bring a claim for that.

If you are genuinely concerned that you have been exposed to something which you have reason to believe could have harmed your baby then I'd say your first port of call should be your GP, and you could also consider giving the Health and Safety Executive a ring and chat to one of their advisers. See here for contact details.

I get the impression though that you don't genuinely think your baby might have been harmed, it's more of a principle thing, they should have done a risk assessment and they didn't, therefore something that could have harmed your baby wasn't identified, and you are more cross about what could have happened that what actually did?

Apologies if I am reading that incorrectly, and do consider investigating further if you have reason to believe that the substance you were exposed to is dangerous and could have had an effect.

But it seems to me this wasn't deliberate, it was an oversight, a mistake that was made, and by having an internal investigation they are acknowledging that they were wrong and are taking the appropriate steps to find out why that happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again. Sounds as though they are handling it pretty well tbh, not sure what else you could ask of them?

thanks flowery!! you got me sussed!! will see what ocurrs! having just contacted risk man at work he is waiting for info to be sent to him, my worry now is that one will magically appear! on prelimary spot check by him there was no sign of one, but now they will have time to think on, as its been done as random check rather than with actual regards to me personally

Well I think wait and see is the best plan. If they suddenly magic one up when it wasn't conducted in the first place, then that's obviously not on, but it does sound like they realise there is a problem and are doing what they should to sort it out. I imagine making one up wouldn't be worth doing, partly because clearly you could say what a load of rubbish if necessary.