The overriding responsibility for employers in Wirral and elsewhere is the safety of their employees, whether they are working as a back office administrator or in a more dangerous occupation which involves using machines and / or engineering equipment.
With dozens of workwear shops and suppliers serving the Wirral are there is no excuse for both employers and employees not taking workwear safety and comfort with the utmost seriousness. For instance, embroidered workwear may clearly display an employer’s logo or brand, but if the overalls do not fit and get caught in machinery they could cause a serious accident. Safety must come first.
Considering the hazards
This is arguably the most important question, how can you have the correct workwear clothes if you don’t know exactly what the hazards are. Workwear shops and outlets on The Wirral will clearly be able to advise on this. However, it is not the supplier’s responsibility to ascertain the risk in a given work place; this is the employers’ responsibility. For instance if I run a noisy plant hire manufacturing or engineering works I need to understand that noise is going to be one of the main hazards I need to accommodate. In this example I would need to ask not “how noisy is it?” my question would need to be more precise or even scientific. I would ask “what is the frequency of noise” and “how long are employees going to be exposed to it? From this base line I can then establish the correct safety workwear to buy. Whether I am in Birkenhead or St Helens, asking the right questions means that I fully comprehend the potential risks.
Who will be using the equipment?
This question automatically produces the intertwined enquiry “who might be harmed?” Neither question is as obvious as they sound. Any person can be harmed, but whoever is carrying out the safety appraisal must communicate directly with those who are actually going to be using the equipment or machinery concerned. Form here the correct recommendations concerning workwear can be presented to both employees and employers, the latter will then be able to act accordingly. An employee may have a particular condition that precludes them from certain positions on the shop floor or they may need to have specific equipment that only certain workwear shops in Wirral can provide.
Either way if this information is not drawn out of the risk assessment then the workplace is not as safety focused as it should be.
