Safety of women - travelling to and from work

millpond · Post by **millpond** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:30 pm

With the very current and serious topic of women's safety in mind. Anyone with an example Risk Assessment covering to and from work, notably in the hours of darkness. Much appreciated

ddlh · Post by **ddlh** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:19 pm

If they drive as part of their work duties I would have thought there should be a risk assessment in place already.
However never too late. The HSE have a bit of guidance that you can make specific to the work your company and their employees carry out. I also found this on the web.

https://www.firstoption.group/files/dri ... vities.pdf

https://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetranspo ... t/risk.htm

millpond · Post by **millpond** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:48 pm

Thanks for the reply.
My fault I should have been more specific. Driving is covered. I'm looking at general safety more so on foot during the dark i.e. entering leaving work, poorly lit streets, car parks, etc.

witsd · Post by **witsd** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 6:49 pm

I wouldn't have thought it needs to be more than half a page. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest the following:

"All employees to be made aware that we provide personal attack alarms upon request." + lone working devices if deemed necessary as part of the working day.

"All staff to be made aware that the workplace offers confidential reporting of issues / incidents / counselling" + whatever else you actually have, if anything.

"Dark areas adjacent to the workplace to be highlighted to local council for consideration of increased /repairing street lighting."

Do not specify gender as part of the RA. Yes, women are more at risk statistically, but it's really not the employer's place to start dictating which personal aspects may be significant factors. Would you offer alarms to the Black or gay members of staff because there are more hate crimes against them than the white / straight ones? I'd hope not!

millpond · Post by **millpond** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 8:00 pm

All good points. I'll stay clear of Gender etc.
Much appreciated

Messy · Post by **Messy** » Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:51 pm

Are women at risk generally - as stated by a post above?

I would be very careful about confusing fact from fear.

Frankly I would avoid even going here and feeding the media originated frenzy

Blackstone · Post by **Blackstone** » Fri Oct 22, 2021 9:57 am

Agree with the above about not making it about women, however

If we are talking about commuting to and from work where does the responsibility of the employer stop?
It's great that you are considering this and how you can help someone but a risk assessment for commuting to and from work?
Surely its the employees responsibility what things they do to keep themselves safe outside of work?

Commuting to/from work and travelling for the purpose of work are a different things.

witsd · Post by **witsd** » Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:13 am

Messy wrote: ↑Thu Oct 21, 2021 10:51 pmAre women at risk generally - as stated by a post above

From what I've seen of the statistics, yes, absolutely. But this is probably not the place to discuss this.

Blackstone wrote: ↑Fri Oct 22, 2021 9:57 amIf we are talking about commuting to and from work where does the responsibility of the employer stop?

The legal or moral responsibility?

The employer certainly can't dictate the employees' actions outside of work (to an extent - try scaring little old ladies while wearing the company-branded polo shirt, and that freedom will be swiftly curtailed!), but I think at a minimum they should provide cheap alarms and take some ownership of reporting local issues.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that we start mapping out / analysing commuting routes or anything like that.

Safety · Post by **Safety** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:59 am

I agree with Blackstone, H&S at Work is at Work, travelling too and from if its not on company business isn't.
We need to be mindful about providing any type of alarm equipment, what happens if it doesn't work and the company supplied it?

Mobile phones and 999.

witsd · Post by **witsd** » Mon Oct 25, 2021 11:05 pm

Tell staff to test it weekly, replace battery annually. Done. This seems a lot like people are looking for pitfalls in order to avoid doing anything helpful.

I'm certainly recognising that this is over and above a company's legal requirements, but so what? Shouldn't we be looking for ways to proactively increase the safety of our staff rather than only doing what we are forced to by legislation?