DDA Question

[josiejo]

Hi

I am self employed, working as an NVQ assessor/verifier. I have been working at one particular location for several months now. However, today I visited them to see some of my candidates and was told that I can no longer see learners who are based on the first and second floors as there is no procedure in place for evacuation should a fire happen whilst I'm up there. Apparently, they do have a procedure in place for people employed by them for evacuation.

Does anyone know if the company are guilty of discriminating against me with regards to the DDA?

Would be grateful to hear your thoughts please!

[Paul]

Yes they are discriminating as although you are not employed by them, as soon as you enter you are under their care and their SHE (Safety, Health & Environment) Policy should cover visitors, whether they are disabled or not.

They should have an evac-chair for people in wheelchairs to use, and this should be used indiscriminately.

You should contact Thompsons Solicitor - as used by Unite the Union on similar matters or look for someone near to you.
http://www.thompsons.law.co.uk/

[Lighttouch]

It's about Health and Saferty. Get onto their Chief Executive's department and make your views heard.

I used to work o the 5th Floor and I am semi-ambulent. It was always chaos and the fire drill worked fine for everyone but me!

You need fire marshel volunteers on each floor to check that everyone has left.
You would need to be allocated a fire 'buddy' who assists you if a fire breaks out.
You can't use the lifts during a fire as they autoatically go to the ground floor but there should e a fireproof fireman's small lift by the back stairs that the firemen can use.
Forget any intercom systems as they are useless with alarms going off. In any cases the porter staffing the eergency phone has usually left their post to assist elsewhere.

Forget the special disabled persons evacuation chair - nobody will know how to put it up or take you down.

So if they don't have an emergency escape plan I'd stick to the ground floor otherwise you'll have smoking boots and you'll be toast i the event of a real fire