subject: Employers Must Not Risk Staff Safety When Carrying Out High Level Cleaning [print this page] These days it is impossible to risk allowing your own staff to undertake high level cleaning because of Health and Safety laws unless a business invests without investing heavily in Health and Safety training and specialised equipment.
It is sensible, therefore, to have high level cleaning done by a specialist industrial cleaning service, that will have the right professional equipment and training in carrying it out safely.
Methods of high level cleaning vary from area to area, but the main objective is to create a programme of work that will maintain overheads and high level structures in a condition where dust and residues do not accumulate to a level where product contamination or infestation can occur.
It may involve using highly trained specialist rope access teams for cost effective solutions to the cleaning of areas that otherwise are only accessible by the construction of fixed scaffold systems, which not only adds time, but also introduces the risk of potential cross contamination from wooden decking boards and building site debris.
It may not seem like high level cleaning is an essential but a recent trading standards inspection of a small coffee bar in the East of England shows that not only surface cleaning, equipment safety and food handling hygiene is inspected.
Its report also highlighted that "the high level cleaning was very poor with a large build up of dirt and dust particularly to the suspended wooden frame in the ceiling area of the unit" and recommended that it needed to be cleaned and included in the regular cleaning schedule.
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 are meant to help prevent the many serious injuries and even deaths that occur each year due to a fall from height in the workplace. They are aimed at those who control the work of others - people such as facilities managers, construction site managers and even the self-employed.
In April 2007, the regulations were amended to also include people who might engage in height related activities such as in teambuilding exercises or in any other kind of sport or recreation which might involve operating at height.
The regulations (regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations) outline an employer's responsibility to ensure that any work which is to be carried out at height has been properly planned, is fully supervised and that it's only carried out by those who are competent to do it.
They must ensure that the staff have received comprehensive instruction and training and that they've been given all the information which is needed in order to carry out their tasks. Wherever possible an employer should investigate whether a particular role could be performed without the need to work at height, first of all.
A long handled tool for cleaning office windows might be an example. If not they must make sure all steps are taken to make the area as safe as possible and to install any safety equipment to help prevent falls, such as safety barriers, guard rails, nets or soft landing strips.
