What does the law say about lone person working in betting shops?
While the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 does not specifically cover lone person working (LPW), the law does state that employers must identify workplace hazards, assess the risks involved and put in place measures to avoid or control risk.
All premises therefore, need to be risk assessed and this should be done annually or immediately after the occurrence of a serious incident. You should have access to the risk assessment document for your shop and if you are unhappy with any aspect of it then you can request that another one is carried out.
Check for the following:
- Does the risk assessment cover LPW?
- Is it up to date?
- Does it reflect the shop workers’ experience of LPW?
- Are all of the safety controls being properly implemented?
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a number of guidelines on LPW with the most important recommendations being that LPW should be avoided in premises where there is a large amount of cash and where there are female employees, all of this has obvious relevance to betting shop workers. The HSE also recommends that employers work with trade unions and take advantage of the unions’ expertise to reduce the risk of violence at work.
Unfortunately, we believe many bookmakers do not take these guidelines seriously enough and some instead persist with ‘voluntary’ single staffing while others claim not to have a policy on LPW while demanding that staff work alone until 1 o’clock! If you are a member of Community and are concerned at having to work alone, contact the union for more specific advice on how to improve safety in your workplace and on how to conduct your own risk assessment.
This information is intended as advice for general questions. Community members should contact the union for specific advice.