Comments by Bob Valentine

Bob Valentine
Member - 5 posts

Ladies and Gentlemen, again thank you for all your support and guidance.
If I may I would like to respond to the last 4 posts:

Stephen, I am an architect by profession however moved into property maintenance and management 13 years ago. I think that the crunch will come during the next week, as for this same building, I have carried out a risk assessment on a loading bay, with recommended control measures which my line manager is required to approve. If he fails to do so I will be taking the matter to the Senior H&S officer within the Council.
As for money talks-last thursday morning the facility staff reported a leak in the heating system of the games hall. As instructed by my line manager, I immeditaly passed it the the heating engineer. He in turn did not visit the site, but issued an order to a contractor charging my depertment £50 or his efforts. The order that went out from his department was not for a heating engineer, but for a plumber who turned up on site on Monday and cleaned the roof £120. On Tuesday the facility staff went and complained to my line manager. Yesterday I had to take control of the situation as the origional request from the facility staff did not identify that the leaking heating pipe was 8 metres abov the FFL and directly above the entrance door of the hall and plant room. Hence I had to call in the correct contractor and work out a safe system of work which will now result in the work being carried out next week with the possible resulting damage to the games hall floor. So £170 later the problem is still not resolved!

John, my line manager is a quantity surveyor by profession. I do not beleive that he is trying to deliberatly entrap me, as he is well aware that given my professional background I record everything in detail. I think is more a case of ignorance, and trying to please everyone but pleasing no one. As for the manuals, I have access to them all, however I have only started to check one manual, the automatic sprinkler system, and already have found that the manual is incomplete and installation does not comply with with the BS and will require various items to be altered to ensure compliance. I am treating this as a latent defect.
I brought in the Council H&S officer in over the design of the pool plant room after the flooding, and a this has resulted in an HSE enforcement notice being issued on the pool plant room and a further £40,000 of remedial works being carried out. All this is very embarrising for the project architect, who is also a Council employeee, and hence this is why I think the project architect has tried to block my training/overview of the rest of the plant.

Pasc, I did think of writing to my Director, or even the Chief Exec, of the Council, however as our corporate H&S section are part of the HR department, I think if I alert them of my situation, they will be more "in tune" with the implications of my line managers decision.

Martin, I look after 25 schools ranging from Senior Secondary to nursery, all local authority under the Director of Education. My line manager has indicated this week that he met with the head Teacher of this school in question, and the Head Teacher has reported that I am not being co-operative. Again my line manager has supported this, so I beleive its just a case of plain ignorance on the part of my line manager of the legal requirements. I have however, held a meeting in the school this week with the facility staff, and the minutes of the meeting will make it clear to the Head Teacher, that my apparent non co-operation is through lack of training, and no other reason.

I am not sure if I should laugh or cry at this ongoing comedy of errors.

Bob Valentine
Member - 5 posts

I am a member of Unison

Bob Valentine
Member - 5 posts

Thank you for everyone who has contributed to the thread to date.

The property in question is a school, with a new swimming pool, H&V plant, sprinkler system and solar recovery system.

The O&M manuals have been left on site, and I have only started to work through the first manual, covering the fire sprinkler system and found that there are defects in the system as built. I have already raised this is an issue directly with the project architect.

With such a complex and integrated property, I could go through all the O&M manauls for each piece of plant and equipment, however with some expert knowledge, I might not fully comprehend how all the systems are integrated. As an example of this, just after the property was occupied, the swimming pool plant room was flooded. A H&V clerk of works was dispatched to the property by persons unknown, who proceeded to shut down all the pumps. The result of which the safety valves on the solar recovery system activated after about an hour, releasing steam from the roof. The school staff reacted, and called the fire service thinking the building was on fire.

I have already issued an order to the architect for training, which would include the ability of H&V consultants/contractors to recover their costs for my training, however the architect has brought the request to the attention of my line manager.

My concern comes not from CDM but from my own personal liability.
The Management of Health and Safety Work Regulations 1999.
Section 13 states:
13. - (1) Every employer shall, in entrusting tasks to his employees, take into account
their capabilities as regards health and safety.
(2) Every employer shall ensure that his employees are provided with adequate health
and safety training -
(a) on their being recruited into the employer's undertaking; and
(b) on their being exposed to new or increased risks because of -
(i) their being transferred or given a change of responsibilities within the
employer's undertaking,
(ii) the introduction of new work equipment into or a change respecting work
equipment already in use within the employer's undertaking,
(iii) the introduction of new technology into the employer's undertaking, or
(iv) the introduction of a new system of work into or a change respecting a
system of work already in use within the employer's undertaking.
(3) The training referred to in paragraph (2) shall -
(a) be repeated periodically where appropriate;
(b) be adapted to take account of any new or changed risks to the health and safety
of the employees concerned; and
(c) take place during working hours.

My interpretation of this is, should my employer not afford me training, and I take a decision that results damaged to the property and plant, or in injury or death to any occupant, I cannot be disciplined by my employer or held accountable in any subsequent criminal or civil law proceedings.

Bob Valentine
Member - 5 posts

I am a property officer who is responisble for all hard FM services of a property. I am due to take over the maintenance of a new property, and have asked the project architects to arrange to give me an overview of the H&V systems of the new property. This may sound totally crazy, but my line manager is now questioning why I require this. I would be grateful for any advise on the legal aspects of my line managers decision.