21 Oct 2002 by Trevor
Health and Safety Certification
There is some talk on this site (and I have heard other rumours) about H&S certification and the painful penalties that may arise for non-compliance.
I am involved with a run-of-the-mill local cricket club where there is no "employer" or "employees" as such, just enthusiasic amateurs doing the jobs and making the decisions.
Does anyone know what impact this change will have on clubs like mine? Should we be worried?
21 Oct 2002 by Graham
H&S
H&S is a necessary evil that we all have to fall into line with. The guidelines currently state that any employer with 5 or more employees must have their H&S up to date. The trouble is it becomes a bit of a grey area after that. There are horror stories where committee members/club chairmen are held responsible for an accident or injury to a third party and without even basic H&S, the law will always sit on the victims side. The trouble is that even with full H&S in place, all that one can do is show that all necessary and available steps were taken to ensure safety-it doesn't exonerate the club but the fines levied would take that into account. The bottom line is that you take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the club users and perhaps ask for some guidance from the Pitchcare team, who seem to be making sure that everybody is aware of the issues surrounding the subject
22 Oct 2002 by Trevor
H&S
Thanks for that Graham - so you're saying that to all intents and purposes the committee of a club such as ours would be deemed employers and any member performing work at the club employees. With this in mind I think a popular article on this site would be how small amateur clubs with a couple of mowers, a roller and the occasional use of scarifiers etc might implement an appropriate plan to protect those that use the equipment as well as the committee members. I'm sure that there are several out there, like me, who are both committee members and mower monkeys who have fallen into the job and therefore are not as au fait with legislation as they should be.
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