Does my employer have a legal duty to provide somewhere safe to lock my bike?

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Does my employer have a legal duty to provide somewhere safe to lock my bike?

28 posts & 20 voices | Started 3 years ago by Lifer | Latest reply from hels

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Lifer - Member

We've only got a tiny carpark and share it with a recruitment agency, looking at the scrapes and dings on their cars I don't want to leave it where it's going to get pranged. Plus it's quite shiny so will attract the magpies!

We have a rear (internal) fire escape where someone's abandoned a bike and some books(?) already, but the office manager is a right freaking jobsworth and I can see her having a problem over this (I was off long term sick about 2 years ago and she tried to **** me over then, had it in for me ever since because she failed).

It wouldn't be obstructing the fire escape as it would be under the stairs, but I just want to go in there ready for a battle. Any help much appreciated!

Posted 3 years ago #
cynic-al - Member

Answer to thread title "No" or on a bad day "Are you ****ing us?"

Worth a try on the cupborad though.

Get a hack?

Posted 3 years ago #
Lifer - Member

"Are you ****ing us?"

I was well prepared for that don't worry!

It is my 'hack' but still worth ~£300.

Posted 3 years ago #
Padowan - Member

I think that employers only have an obligation to provide for cyclists if they subscribe to the cycle-to-work scheme, which would include secure storage and shower/changing facilities.

Posted 3 years ago #
aP - Member

Oh, the optimism of youth.
Just get a Brompton and leave it under your desk.

Posted 3 years ago #
cynic-al - Member

Padowan - Member
I think that employers only have an obligation to provide for cyclists if they subscribe to the cycle-to-work scheme, which would include secure storage and shower/changing facilities.

Any authority for that? Sounds like dream-land.

Posted 3 years ago #
FuzzyWuzzy - Member

dreamland I think, my employer does C2W and we don't have showers (hence why I don't make use of the scheme).

Posted 3 years ago #
freegan bikefascist - Member

take a picture of the staircase as it is, especially if it's blocked at the moment.

if you're not blocking the exit then I suggest you should be fine, political witch-hunts notwithstanding

Posted 3 years ago #
ojom - Member

I think that employers only have an obligation to provide for cyclists if they subscribe to the cycle-to-work scheme, which would include secure storage and shower/changing facilities.

Nope.

Posted 3 years ago #
dangriff - Member

Leave it under your desk.

Posted 3 years ago #
Macavity - Member

Unfortunately this is not really going do much for your case but, if you have nothing else then you can quote:

"the provision and maintenance of a working e nvironment for his employees that is, so far as is reasonably practicable, safe, without risks to health, and adequate as regards facilities and arrangements for their welfare at work "
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
Section 2 General duties of employers to their employees

Posted 3 years ago #
Gary_M - Member

We've only got a tiny carpark and share it with a recruitment agency, looking at the scrapes and dings on their cars I don't want to leave it where it's going to get pranged. Plus it's quite shiny so will attract the magpies!

So you're saying locking your bike up to something in the car park isn't good enough for you? You're worried someone may bump it in the car park and you're going to ask to keep it somewhere 'special'.

I think the phrase 'get real' applies here.

Posted 3 years ago #
clubber - Member

The answer is a simple 'no' I'm afraid.

Posted 3 years ago #
Padowan - Member

OK, maybe I'm wrong, I did proviso that statement with "I think..."

My employer used this as rationale for not offering the scheme to us as they said that they had to provide these facilities (storage, changing, showering) to all employees across all of our locations in order to not discriminate. For the production facilities, this was easy, but for the offices it wasn't so they decided against offering the scheme to anyone. Perhaps this was an internal company ethic of non-discrimination rather than a government obligation.

Posted 3 years ago #
Lifer - Member

freegan bikefascist - Member
take a picture of the staircase as it is, especially if it's blocked at the moment.

if you're not blocking the exit then I suggest you should be fine, political witch-hunts notwithstanding

Good idea.

Gary_M - well done you can read, I am saying that. The only place to lock it is the external fence (which also borders an alleyway that is used quite a lot) or to the aircon cages which show the scars of many a parking ding. So I don't think it's unreasonable to ask.

Sorry if I want to protect my possessions.

Posted 3 years ago #
Gary_M - Member

So I don't think it's unreasonable to ask.

That's up to you but I just can't be doing with people who expect special treatment. It's only a £300 bike and I can understand why your office manager would have a problem with it, after all what if more people started riding in and wanted a special place to keep their bikes?

Posted 3 years ago #
sv - Member

what if more people started riding in and wanted a special place to keep their bikes?

God forbid eh!

Posted 3 years ago #
bigsi - Member

It's not a straight no as some might suggest.

I opened an office just over 3 years ago and we had to get change of usage but one of the conditions of that was we MUST provide a place for clients/staff to lock their bikes up. In the end we put a metal loop in the wall so a lock could be threaded through it.

Posted 3 years ago #
crazy-legs - Member

It's only a £300 bike and I can understand why your office manager would have a problem with it, after all what if more people started riding in and wanted a special place to keep their bikes?

What a f***ing stupid thing to say, I really hope you're just trolling.
It's not *just* a £300 bike, it's his means of transport. I know that for a lot of people on here £300 is half way to a set of suspension forks but £300 is also 3x what the average person in the street would consider spending on a bike.

To the OP - just do it, lock it up in the stairwell and don't tell anyone. At my old place of work there were eventually so many people cycling in that misManagement had no option other than to build a bike shed.

Posted 3 years ago #
yossarian - Member

there is no requirement under the health & safety at work act for cycling related provision - PERIOD. Quoting that at them will just get you laughed at.

The only thing you can get them on is the requirements of their travel plan (if they have one) and the associated section 106 agreement they should have signed with your Local Authority. Generally an employer has no legal requirement to provide bike shelters or showers unless they have already committed to do so.

Posted 3 years ago #
DezB - Member

We had a spate of bikes being stolen at our place, so the company stepped in to help.
Was it
a. switched on the security cameras which were not recording when the bikes were nicked

b. Put an extra security guard on duty

c. provided a secure bike cage
or
d. put up a sign saying "Cycles left at own risk"

?

Posted 3 years ago #
Lifer - Member

I'll post up a photo of the potential 'cycle area' later it might clarify things.

Dez, that's a tough one I'm gonna have to sleep on it!

Posted 3 years ago #
ScottChegg - Member

Despite the ideal world hopes of the OP, it shouldn't be unreasonable for companies that have smoking shelters outside should provide a bike locking area for those who aren't trying to kill themselves with fags.

Posted 3 years ago #
bigyinn - Member

DezB The answer will be 'd' i expect...

Posted 3 years ago #
DezB - Member

Indeed. W@nkers.

Posted 3 years ago #
bassspine - Member

sounds like your employers are mixing up the cyclescheme with the cycle to work guarantee

Posted 3 years ago #
DezB - Member

My employers have signed up to the We Don't Give A Shit Guarantee.

Posted 3 years ago #
hels - Member

In my experience you might be lucky, in one place of work I wanted to store my bike tucked away under the stairs, was told no even though it wasn;t in the way, as a staircase is a fire escape and anything that might impede traffic is a No No. So I put it in the expensive temperature controlled storage area hidden behind some archive boxes. Cosy.

In another we temporarily stashed some book trolleys under the stairs. The crack team of H & S Inspectors were sent out forthwith to remove the obstacles. They didn;t fix the broken fire door all the workies nip out to have a fag mind.

Good luck.

The only hope might be if they apply to extend the car-parking, most cooncils these days are on to it enough to demand cycle spaces as a planning condition.

Posted 3 years ago #

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