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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Law & Legal |
My office is too small! my boss says its not. Please help me find out what is the legal minimum size of room.? |
I found a website saying 11 square meters is minimum per person, but I don't know how to work this out. Any one out there got a head for maths that can explain how I calculate it. The room (which I'll measure properly) is about 4m x 4m x 3m high. Thank you. The main requirement for space in a working area comes from the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 Regulation 10. However the regulation is fairly general 鈥?and it is the Approved Code of Practice that gives a more specific figure of 11 cubic metres of space per person (up to a maximum ceiling height of 3 metres). However this is unoccupied space 鈥?i.e. NOT taking into consideration the furniture and equipment. In a normal height room, 11 cubic metres is a floor area described by the length of a desk and a return unit. In other words, very little space at all. A little more information is given in the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 in the Schedule at paragraph 3(a) which states that 鈥?the workstation shall be dimensioned and designed so as to provide sufficient space for the operator or user to change position and vary movements. Thus you can see that there are no specific figures given for access requirements. However there is a general duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 Section 2 for suitable access and egress 鈥?which is normally taken to mean the way into and out of the building, but has also been taken to mean access to work areas (and desks, by implication). Again, no specific figures, but the risk assessment will help here, in that the person using the desk should be able to get to it and leave it safely. Probably the most significant help can be obtained from the fire safety requirements 鈥?which most certainly apply here. In that the person must be able to escape easily in the event of a fire or other emergency. The 鈥榞ap鈥?would depend on whether the people in the area are all able to walk easily 鈥?or were wheelchair users 鈥?and also how many people had to move through the 鈥榞ap鈥?allowed for. Guidance for widths for fire requirements are given in BS5588 - 11:1997 Fire precautions in the design, construction and use of buildings. Code of practice for shops, offices, industrial, storage and other similar buildings. This would suggest a gap of 600mm for less than ten people easily able to move, and 900 for a wheelchair user. However all this depends on the risks in the area 鈥?remembering the general duty of care under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 鈥?so a risk assessment will give a better guide, or put crudely, let the staff using it try to move and get out as an exercise 鈥?remembering that others may have to use that area too. Find out if what you heard is accurate. Consult your local buildings department. 4x4 would be 16m squared 100 ppl per square meter, or more. That's what the chickens put up with. Get over yourself. http://www.legalethics.com/index.law... has all sorts of cases similar to yours and answers sorry but your employer is not required to keep you in any size room. Be glad you have a job. 4x4 = 16 square meters. But even if your office was less than 11 square meters I don't think you would have any recourse since you could be relocated to a more spacious area on an open floor somewhere without an office. That is, unless having an office is a legal requirement. |
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