Application of Article 21 Training

[William 29]

In a church/place of worship with no employees only volunteers and the FRA identifies a lack of or no fire safety training for the responsible person(s) i.e. Trustees are they still in breach of Article 21 of the RRFSO?  As far as I can determine the training has an employee/employer relationship?  Any thoughts?

21. —(1) The responsible person must ensure that his employees are provided with adequate safety training—

(a) at the time when they are first employed; 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 responsible person's undertaking;
(ii) the introduction of new work equipment into, or a change respecting work equipment already in use within, the responsible person's undertaking;
(iii) the introduction of new technology into the responsible person'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 responsible person's undertaking.

[nearlythere]

In a church/place of worship with no employees only volunteers and the FRA identifies a lack of or no fire safety training for the responsible person(s) i.e. Trustees are they still in breach of Article 21 of the RRFSO?  As far as I can determine the training has an employee/employer relationship?  Any thoughts?

21. —(1) The responsible person must ensure that his employees are provided with adequate safety training—

(a) at the time when they are first employed; 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 responsible person's undertaking;
(ii) the introduction of new work equipment into, or a change respecting work equipment already in use within, the responsible person's undertaking;
(iii) the introduction of new technology into the responsible person'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 responsible person's undertaking.

The first thing you have to do is clarify if volunteers are employees. They both can work on the premises. It may not be gainful employment for the volunteer but it is still work. After that the rest is easy.

[John Webb]

It has been a long-standing custom in H&S circles, established by the HSE, that (unpaid) volunteers should be treated in the same way as (paid) employees. That is, they should be given the appropriate training, protective clothing, etc. that any paid employee should be given for the job they are doing. I see no reason why this should be different for specific fire safety matters.

In churches the problem arises not just about volunteers doing jobs round the premises, but the congregation as a whole, both those who regularly attend services and those who are there for baptisms, weddings and funerals. In the former case they probably know their way out, in the latter case you may need to organise regular members to act as stewards, and they will certainly will need training on evacuation procedure and the like.

[William 29]

Many thanks for the replies everyone, very helpful.

[Tadees]

According to the HSE website, health and safety legislation does not apply to volunteers, not in the sense of training as alluded to at the link below:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/charities.htm

If it were to apply, the RRO, which came after a raft of other H&S legislation, would have been more specific about this, or am I missing trick.

[John Webb]

If people work in a building, whether paid employees or unpaid volunteers, they need to know how to do their job safely and what to do in an emergency situation regardless of their employment status. I would not like to stand up in a court and say "I didn't train my volunteers in the necessary fire precautions because they are not paid employees and the RRO Article 21 therefore does not apply."