Corporate health and safety crime at work

Improvement Notice on DSE workstation assessments.

In November 2000, workplace inspections by UNISON safety reps at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) revealed serious weaknesses in the University's Display Screen Equipment assessments.

Despite repeated attempts to get information about the workstation assessments and users and repeated requests for consultation in an effort to sort out the problems, nothing happened.

UNISON finally had tocontact the HSE and asked for enforcement action to be taken. Following a visit to the University in January this year, the HSE Inspector issued an Improvement Notice to the effect that the employer was contravening Section 2 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, and Regulations 2 & 3 of the DSE Regulations 1992.

MMU now has to revise its self-assessment questionnaire, identify all users, identify and ensure the competence of staff responsible for managing the assessment process and implementing control measures, and draw-up an action plan and timetable for assessing the workstations of all users. They wouldn't have got into this mess had they listened to the trade union, and consulted properly in the first place.