Health and safety info centre
SAMPLE CONTENT
Here you can get a sneak preview of the kind of content you’ll find once you subscribe to the Info Centre. Simply choose the kind of content you want to look at and explore…
Briefings
Briefings provide in-depth research into specific subjects and major topics within the areas of health and safety, human resources and the environment to help you gain a better understanding of the main issues.
Topics include CDM guidance, fire safety, absence management, Employment Tribunals and environmental management systems.
Briefings are written by Workplace Law consultants and industry experts.
Each briefing is fully downloadable from the Workplace Law website as a PDF.
Pre-travel risk assessments
- Date:
- 19 Aug 2011 11:15AM
You don't have access to this download
Despite great strides in communication technology, business travel has not lost its appeal and in 2010 over 3.5 million employees undertook overseas trips. One quarter of the overseas trips undertaken in 2010 were to high or extreme risk locations. And with recent political unrest in Libya and the Middle East, as well as natural disasters in Japan and New Zealand, many organisations are waking up to the dangers associated with sending employees overseas on business.
In such unfamiliar or foreign environments, business travellers may encounter threats to their health, safety and security, outbreaks of civil unrest, terrorism and natural disasters. With these risks in mind it is even more important for employers to take action to protect their people.
In law an employer is bound to take reasonable care for the safety of its employees. This duty extends to providing a safe system of working that extends to when an employee is travelling or is away from home in the course of his or her employment. An employer who fails to discharge this duty of care may be exposed to a claim of negligence from an employee who is injured or harmed in the course of their employment.
As part of this duty of care, employers need to make suitable and sufficient risk assessments for their employees, particularly when asking them to travel overseas on business. Organisations need to demonstrate they have taken all practicable steps to meet their employees’ health, safety and wellbeing needs, whether the business travel is in the UK or overseas.
This briefing discusses exactly what a pre-travel risk assessment is and outlines how employers can encourage business travellers’ safety. It includes a discussion of business travel protection and insurance to enable employers to ensure they have the right cover in place for their people. It also presents a pre-travel checklist that can help your employees stay safe so they can remain focused while travelling overseas and make a positive impact on your business.
