Electrical Safety In the Workplace

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Published: 21 Apr 2017

Electrical safety in the workplace

 

If you work in an office, shop, warehouse or within any property you will almost definitely be surrounded by electricity and electrical equipment. It is very important that you are safe and comfortable within your workplace and this is the responsibility of the company and landlords.

There are lots of signs you can look out for yourself to help you assure that your working environment is safe, we will go through these shortly but for now two of the most important things are to ensure that the fixed wiring in the building has been inspected professionally. This will ensure that the fuse board, cabling, socket outlets, lighting and every other part of the electrical system is safe and in a good condition. This is usually done every 3/5 years depending if industrial or commercial but can change depending on insurance and licensing requirements.

The other important check is PAT testing. All electrical appliances such as extension leads, power cables, fans, and white goods should be tested and marked with a PAT testing label to prove that they have passed the test. This is normally done annually.

Emergency lighting is also an important factor when it comes to work place safety. Emergency lighting should have a full duration test annually. This ensures that in case of a fire or other emergency that the emergency lighting will light up as it should and guide the people inside to a safe exit. It’s often advised within health and safety policy’s that emergency lighting is also tested on a monthly basis just to check that they come on when they should.

Lighting within a work place should always be working to light passage ways to avoid tripping. Passageways should always be clear to avoid tripping hazards and cables should be tucked away neatly where possible to avoid tripping and being damaged. If you are working outside of daylight hours entrances/exits with walkways in or out of the building should be well lit to avoid any tripping/slipping.

We also believe that there should be enough socket outlets within the workplace for all equipment, if not we would advise you have more added rather than use an extension lead as it will be much safer to used fixed plug sockets.

Any work to be done on an electrical system should only be done by qualified electricians and no attempts to change the system should be done by unqualified personel.