What is welfare in the workplace?

What is welfare in the workplace?

Welfare in the workplace refers to facilities that you and other employees need to ensure your well-being at work. For example:

• toilet facilities
• rest facilities
• being able to wash, such as showers where your workplace means you engage in dirty work
• changing facilities
• a clean area to eat and drink when on your breaks
• drinking water
• adequate clean and fresh air ventilation
• comfortable temperature levels

• PPE 
• a place to get changed and store clothes if necessary
• adequate lighting

Who is in charge of welfare in the workplace? 

Your employer is in charge of welfare in the workplace. As part of their legal health and safety duties at work, they must ensure as far as is reasonably practicable, that they provide you with appropriate and adequate welfare facilities. However, although your employer is mainly in charge of the health and safety in the workplace, you and other employees are also partly responsible. This includes your actions where they may affect others and also means you must follow health and safety instructions. 

Reasonable means reasonable in terms of the following:

• costs
• time
• trouble
• physical difficulties involved in doing so

For example, they must provide restrooms for pregnant women and nursing mothers where it is reasonably practical to do so. They must also think about those with disabilities in terms of what they may need at work. 

Welfare in the workplace is not simply about providing welfare facilities at work but doing so to a particular standard. These have to legally be ‘adequate'. For example:

• toilets to be an adequate amount for the number of people who need to use them
• facilities should be clean
• welfare facilities should be well-lit
• running water should consist of both hot and cold water
• providing toilet paper
• ensuring women can dispose of sanitary dressings
• providing enough soap
• basins would allow you to wash your arms as well as your hands
• providing a method to dry your hands

What is a duty of care?

Your employer has a legal duty of care towards your health and safety in the workplace. This means they have to do all they reasonably can to keep you healthy, and safe and provide for your wellbeing. They also have a legal duty towards the health and safety of others affected by their business, so not limited to employees.

As part of their duty of care, employers are also required to carry out risk assessments  This is how they begin the process of ensuring they carry out their duty of care.  It means they have to inspect their workplace for work hazards and protect you from these as well as manage them effectively. 

Your employer's duty of care includes, for example;

• creating a health and safety policy where they employ five or more people
• making an official record of the result of their health and safety risk assessment where they employ five or more people
• implementing health and safety procedures
• displaying a health and safety law poster for employees to see
• ensuring equipment is safe to use
• providing first aid facilities
• having emergency plans in place

What is welfare provision in a workplace?

Welfare provision in the workplace means that your employer has to provide adequate welfare facilities for employees. These are facilities that are needed in order to look after your well being at work. Employers' exact welfare provisions in the workplace will vary according to their business circumstances. For example, they will need to take account of:

• the type of work carried out
• the number of employees they have
• the workplace environment

This is why it is essential that your employer carries out a risk assessment to find out what welfare provisions are needed in their workplace.

What is the employer's duty of care negligence?

Your employer's duty of negligence is their responsibility to ensure that they carry out their duty of care to you in the workplace. Therefore, where they don't and are responsible for you falling ill, or suffering an accident or an injury, they have been negligent in their duty of care. This includes where they fail to provide adequate welfare facilities. 

Another way to refer to your employer's duty of care negligence is your employer's liability. This is because when they have been negligent they will then be liable for the results of it. Therefore, you may be able to make a compensation claim against your employer to cover losses and damages for your injury or illness at work. 

In addition to the possibility of making an accident at work compensation claim towards your employer, the Health and Safety Executive has powers to take action against employers where they do not provide adequate welfare facilities in the workplace. For example, a construction firm failed to provide adequate toilet, cleaning and eating facilities for its staff. One issue was that the toilet was not properly flushing and there was no sink next to it to wash hands. As a result, they were charged a hefty fine in court.