- Letter to the
Editor.
- Your views and news...
Dear Readers... The Fire Brigades Union is concerned for the safety of your and your employees.
This letter is being circulated to managers with responsibility for Health, Safety and Welfare in your workplace. The legal implications of the information contained in this letter may seriously affect you and your undertaking.
There is a foreseeable risk of UK Fire and Rescue Services being on national strike. Emergency fire cover will be provided by the armed services.
The Government has admitted that this fire cover will be wholly inadequate. There will be insufficient, poorly trained personnel. They will be using restricted antiquated equipment. They will be geographically sparsely spread using fire appliances mostly built in 1948!
We wish to inform you of the foreseeable hazard and to remind you that risk-assessments with regard to The Workplace (Fire Precautions) Regulations and some under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations may be invalid. You may need to consider reviewing them.
To assist you, assessments that may require review include activities with risks of fire, road traffic accidents, chemical, biological or radiation accidents, or from persons becoming trapped in machinery, under collapsed structures, at height or in confined spaces.
Further advice, information and the Fire Safety Checklist is available on the internet at
http://www.fbu.org.uk
In the first instance you may wish to consult your Local Authorities and trade organizations. Your Health, Safety & Welfare Representatives may be particularly useful in this matter.
Yours sincerely, FBU HS&W Representative
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To Health, Safety & Welfare Representatives
in Southport.
Dear Comrades,
This letter is being circulated by the Fire Brigades Union to Health Safety & Welfare Representatives.
For your information, we have enclosed a letter that has been circulated to managers with responsibility for workplace Health, Safety and Welfare.
It is essential that workplace managers respond to the hazards that this letter has identified and the increased risks that it entails. Please ensure that your management carry out their legal duties and review their risk-assessments suitably and sufficiently with regard to the period when fire and rescue cover will be inadequate.
In light of the impending Industrial Action within the Fire Service, you may wish to review your workplace General/Fire risk-assessments to ascertain if the non-attendance of the Fire Service during any period of Industrial action would pose a concern to the safety of your members.
If you do have any specific concerns for the safety of your members, due to the dangerous nature of the work activities they undertake, or unacceptable workplace fire precautions without the attendance of the Fire/Rescue service, if you cannot reach an agreement locally, please approach your Trades Union's Area/Regional Office.
For further information on the campaign or for advice, contact an FBU Representative at your nearest Fire Station or by letter to this address. We invite you to join our bulletin board on the internet at
http://www.fbu.org.uk
Please contact other Representatives to share expertise and spread this message as widely as possible. Also include your own Trades Union.
Yours fraternally,
FBU HS&W Representative.
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