The Food Storage and Distribution Federation (FSDF) and The British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF) have launched new “Work At Height Guidance” for the frozen food and cold storage industry.
They said that before this new guidance, many cold store operators were in breach of existing Health & Safety Executive guidance by regularly use non-integrated working platforms for planned work.
Non-integrated working platforms are attachments for use in conjunction with forklift trucks to elevate people so they can work at height, but they have no controls in the platform that allow a person in the platform to control the lift height of the platform or move the truck.
This meant that companies were potentially liable to prosecution and the industry lacked practical safety guidance in this area.
The two organisantion have worked with the HSE, which has recognised the practical limitations for cold stores. The resulting guidance is supplementary to existing HSE Guidance note PM282, and is designed to support cold store operators in their selection of work at height equipment by outlining a hierarchy of the alternatives available.
The new guidance document can be viewed at www.fsdf.org.uk
