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zcott simpson
Member - 1 post
Please can you give me advice regarding legal requirements for desk spacing - it has been suggested that we reorganise our office and place 20+ desks in a row (2 rows of 10 facing each other) without spacing / walkways in between.
Could this contravene any health and safety or working conditions law?
Any advice gratefully received
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Adrian Waltho
Member - 27 posts
Zcott,
The provision of work space is set out in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. Regulation 10 states that each person shall have "sufficient floor area, height and unoccupied space". This requirement is expanded in the ACoP, and requires workrooms to have enough "free space" to allow people to get to and from workstations and to move within the room with ease.
The ACoP states that each person should have a total minimum of 11 cubic metres of space (when the room is empty), where the maximum height used is 3m. Therefore, in a room with a 3m or higher ceiling, the minimum "free" floor area should be 3.7 Sq. m. However, depending on the type of furniture, for example, in the room, 3.7 sq. m. may be insufficient to comply with the requirement for sufficient free space.
You may also find the following discussion in the forum about space planning useful:
http://www.workplacelaw.net/forum/thread.php?thread_id=369
and the following article:
http://www.workplacelaw.net/display.php?resource_id=2201
I hope you find this information useful.
Kind regards,
Workplace Law Network
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