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Wet floors at work – Mitigating the risks

Jun 11, 2010 | Staff | Workplace Law

A worker has been awarded compensation after being injured when she fell down a slippery slope at work, Thompsons Solcitors reports.

Nursing auxiliary Jennifer Allso suffered back injuries after falling down the steep and slippery slope whilst working for the Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Trust.

The slope was slippery because it had recently been mopped by a cleaner. However, Allso was unaware of this because there were no signs to indicate that it was potentially hazardous. The Trust failed to ensure that adequate precautions were taken to avoid the accident.

The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations specifically mention keeping floors free from any substance that could cause a person to slip, trip or fall, "as far as is reasonably practicable".

In addition, the Occupiers Liability Act places a common duty of care on the occupier of a premises towards all lawful visitors to ensure that the visitor will be safe.

The most common way for employers to mitigate the risks from people slipping on wet floors is the use of warning signs. However, the HSE does warn that these can have a limited effect, unless they are properly used. If warning signs are always visible on areas which are clearly not being cleaned or drying they will quickly lose any effectiveness. Methods of preventing access during cleaning or drying need to be effective, for example:

• physically exclude people from wet cleaning areas e.g. barriers, locking off an area;
• cleaning during quiet hours; and
• cleaning in sections so there is always a dry path through the area.

Accoridng to HSE advice you should organise your business to ensure that people are not put at risk from slipping and tripping. There are also some practical things that are important to look at. The folowing is an HSE ‘hierarchy of controls' to help prevent slips and trips. Controls at the top of the list should be tried first.

• Make sure that things like poor lighting or glare don't prevent people seeing where they are walking.
• Stop the floor getting wet or contaminated in the first place.
• Keep water or contaminants away from walkways.
• Quickly clean up any spillages or contamination that does get onto the floor.
• Ensure that the existing floor surface itself has enough grip.
• Use the right cleaning method to ensure that the floor's grip is maintained.
• Make sure steps and slopes have good foot and hand holds and have no sudden changes.
• Replace the floor surface with one that has better grip.
• Select suitable footwear for the conditions, work and individual.