You are well within your right to expect a safe workspace in which to spend your entire working day. No matter which industry you work in, your employer should always ensure that your health and safety is never at risk. There are certain precautions that your employer needs to take. These ensure that you are never in danger of having an accident or suffering an occupational illness. Here are some of the most important ones.



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Protective Clothing

Do you work with heavy machinery or in potentially dangerous environments? Then your employer is legally required to provide you with suitable protective clothing. For example, if you regularly work with drills, you should be supplied with hearing protection. And if you work a lot with dangerous chemicals, you should be given clothing that provides a barrier between the toxins and your skin. If you aren’t given sufficient safety equipment and suffer an injury or illness as a result, you could claim compensation. Those who have not been given proper equipment while working with asbestos can get help for your mesothelioma case. By doing so, you can take your employer to court for compensation.

Fire Escapes

All workspaces need to have fire escapes. In the event of a fire, all of your colleagues should be able to safely leave the premises out of one of these exits. Your employer should ensure that everyone in the company knows where the fire escapes are. The best way to demonstrate this is to hold regular company wide fire drills. It is also important that the fire exits are always clear. There should be regular checks that there aren’t any pieces of furniture left in the way. These hazards could make it difficult for people to exit the building in an emergency.



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Risk Assessments

All employers should carry out a risk assessment in their workspace. It should be regularly updated every year if new risks have developed. Once the risk assessment has been carried out, it should be displayed somewhere that all employees can see it. But what exactly needs to be included in the risk assessment? Your employer will need to take into consideration anything that creates a risk within the workplace. By assessing the risks, they can see if any measures can be taken to reduce these hazards and risks.

Provide First Aid

There should be an adequate first aid kit in your workspace. Obviously, if you work with a lot of machineries, you will need a larger kit than those found in an office. There should also be an accident book at each place of work. If there is ever an accident at work, it needs to be noted in the book. All the entries need to be regularly examined and used to see if the workplace can be improved and made safer somehow.

These are some of the very basic health and safety precautions that your employer should take. If some of these are missing from your place of work, have a chat with your boss about improving your safety at work.