Break room facilities for office staff
Discussion
Is there a legal requirement for an employer to provide a seating area away from desks for office staff?
My friend works for a large building contractor, in the accounts department. There are around 30 staff, and they currently have a small kitchen, but no seating.
It's a growing company, and they have just had planning approved for a new office building on a greenfield site. Much bigger building, and it even has a helipad for the directors. Still no rest room though.
My friend works for a large building contractor, in the accounts department. There are around 30 staff, and they currently have a small kitchen, but no seating.
It's a growing company, and they have just had planning approved for a new office building on a greenfield site. Much bigger building, and it even has a helipad for the directors. Still no rest room though.
Don't know about legal other than the one about a break away from your normal workplace for x mins after working 6 hours.
Our H+S Advisor made a recommendation that we think about it, we have about 16 staff. We have Sofas in the (Heated) warehouse where people can sit on breaks/calls, but no breakroom facilities to sit and eat at. We have some plans (I already have a postmix machine with gun, we provide cans of pop - the post mix will save us a fortune.) but need to get Nov/Dec out of the way.
Our H+S Advisor made a recommendation that we think about it, we have about 16 staff. We have Sofas in the (Heated) warehouse where people can sit on breaks/calls, but no breakroom facilities to sit and eat at. We have some plans (I already have a postmix machine with gun, we provide cans of pop - the post mix will save us a fortune.) but need to get Nov/Dec out of the way.
clockworks said:
Is there a legal requirement for an employer to provide a seating area away from desks for office staff?
HSE requires “somewhere to rest and eat meals” but doesn’t say this needs to be separate, so if the employer is happy for someone to sit at their desk eating some smelly food then that would suffice.More of an issue is how the employer ensures that employees get an *uninterrupted* break whilst sat at their desk and are not bothered by others with ‘something that will just take a minute’.
So perhaps at lunchtime your friend should start eating pilchard and egg curry at their desk, whilst wearing noise cancelling headphones and a sign propped up saying ‘don’t bother me at lunch’.
clockworks said:
That's pretty much how I understood it - somewhere safe and clean to sit, so an office desk is OK, but a factory workstation wouldn't be.
She's convinced that a dedicated restroom is required.
You get what you pay for, which in this case She's convinced that a dedicated restroom is required.
clockworks said:
It's a growing company, and they have just had planning approved for a new office building on a greenfield site. Much bigger building, and it even has a helipad for the directors. Still no rest room though.
will be zero loyalty, quiet quitting and peanut paid monkeys. This stuff isn't hard, but people get it wrong time and againCollectingbrass said:
clockworks said:
That's pretty much how I understood it - somewhere safe and clean to sit, so an office desk is OK, but a factory workstation wouldn't be.
She's convinced that a dedicated restroom is required.
You get what you pay for, which in this case She's convinced that a dedicated restroom is required.
clockworks said:
It's a growing company, and they have just had planning approved for a new office building on a greenfield site. Much bigger building, and it even has a helipad for the directors. Still no rest room though.
will be zero loyalty, quiet quitting and peanut paid monkeys. This stuff isn't hard, but people get it wrong time and againpherlopolus said:
We have some plans (I already have a postmix machine with gun, we provide cans of pop - the post mix will save us a fortune.) but need to get Nov/Dec out of the way.
I've read this several times and I'm confused. Does 'postmix' mean something different to you? If not, the cans of pop bit seems a bit of a non sequiteur.Genuinely puzzled.
Doofus said:
pherlopolus said:
We have some plans (I already have a postmix machine with gun, we provide cans of pop - the post mix will save us a fortune.) but need to get Nov/Dec out of the way.
I've read this several times and I'm confused. Does 'postmix' mean something different to you? If not, the cans of pop bit seems a bit of a non sequiteur.Genuinely puzzled.
R56Cooper said:
Doofus said:
pherlopolus said:
We have some plans (I already have a postmix machine with gun, we provide cans of pop - the post mix will save us a fortune.) but need to get Nov/Dec out of the way.
I've read this several times and I'm confused. Does 'postmix' mean something different to you? If not, the cans of pop bit seems a bit of a non sequiteur.Genuinely puzzled.
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