Thread: Bank employees causing customer stress: H&SW Act 1974

I would be very interested to know from bank and other finance industry employees if they are personally aware, or have been made aware by their employers, of Sections 7 and 37 of the Health and Safety at Work Etc Act 1974.

Sect 7 - It shall be the duty of every employee while at work (a) to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work . . .

Sect 37 - Where an offence under any of the relevant statutory provisions committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who is purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

Employees therefore have personal liability (over and above any liability on their employer) and in the event of a successful prosecution under Section 7, which is a fine of up to £5000 in a Magistrates Court or an unlimited fine if dealt with in a Crown Court. All employees of any kind, at any level in any organisation however small (except, perhaps, those covered by Crown Immunity) are in this position. My guess is that the vast majority don’t know it.

Stress is a recognised health condition. If anything an employee writes, speaks or initiates can be shown to have caused stress to a customer (or indeed a co-worker, anyone), quite clearly that employee is in trouble. Even more so if that employee has been previously informed that the third party suffers stress.

I merely throw this small pebble into the pond to see if there are any ripples.
(My emphasis throughout)
I do not work for a bank.

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I have now made contact with the Health and Safety Executive seeking to clarify a number of points about the application of these two sections, but if I was employed in putting my name to letters demanding money, or pestering phone calls, I think I would be quite concerned.

I shall point this out to the phone drones when they call !
Thanks for the info.

I have received a reply from the HSE which at first glance ducks the issue, but haven't got the time to go through it in detail. I'll post an update asap.

The HSE does not seem to be able to see beyond its use in an industrial accident scenario, but to me the wording is unambiguous. It seems to me it could also be used in relation to bullying at work, and teachers/head teachers doing nothing about bullying in their schools. ALL employees (and self-employed). No exceptions (unless Crown immunity). Very, very powerful. But needs test cases.

This is very interesting, after I got called "A Thief & various other things along the same lines" on the phone from a man from Cap 1 bank, it was about two years ago or more and after this particular call I was reduced to tears, I have never stolen a thing in my life.
I had to proceed to the school to collect my kids straight after that call and it was obvious to all that i had just been upset. That call affected me quite badly for a long while,
This same man called me a few times and was always nasty & threatening.
At the time I couldn't deal with it, & didn't know how to deal with it, But i bloody well could now.
Enough of my ramblings, I'll be watching this thread for any updates and although its a bit late for my past experiences if i can point it out to others then its very worth while.
Thanks for the info!

Inovation!!!

Good one Apop.

David

Originally Posted by Mrs_Ryan

thats terrible

i worked for Cap1 in their specialist support unit and the pressure on us was so great that I had to leave due to beng told by my doctor 'I was days away from being in a diabetic coma due to my blood sugar levels being too low due to stress.'

It would seem our friends at Cap1 need putting in the picture :o

It was very bad, perhaps this guy was put under pressure he certainly would have been if he had shown his face near my husband at that time, this is the sort of crap that leads people to take there own lives.
i will never forget that, the damn banks are insured for there losses, and at the time that this happened to me I had missed two payments and was trying to get it together to make these up.

Wow thanks for this

im off work with stress and depression and have been wanting to write a letter to my creditors to tell them this and inform them to write to me and i will respond to them in writing back, to cease their phonecalls as its causing me distress.

Can i somehow word into a letter something along the above Apopletic has advised.

I am willing to send out a letter as a trial letter, as i need to send something to the Bank of Scotland and halifax as they are now asking me to call them and i feel under durress to do so, but have already written to all my creditors with my offers and have paid for the past 2 months the payments.

Ive seen the harrasement by telephone letter but wanted to send them a clear guidance on my health and im under a consultant at the moment too.

This would be brilliant if someone would be happy to put a quick letter together for me, forgive me im a bit slow in thinking clearly at the moment.

I'll add anything else and then post here for others to view before i send out, and then i can update you all of the kind of response i get if any.

Would be truely helpful to me - will subscribe to this thread today.

Ive had some great help already on this issue but cant get my words right on the letter this week.

Ciao for now MAZ

Originally Posted by Apoplectic

Sect 7 - It shall be the duty of every employee while at work (a) to take reasonable care for the health and safety of himself and of other persons who may be affected by his acts or omissions at work . . .

The last thing I want to do is throw a spanner in the works , as it were, but...

... those last two little letters "at work".


Does this mean...

- while the person who could have possibly breached the H&S act was at work... or,
- it only covers those people who work alongside him in the workplace?

Sorry to make it a "downer" post, but wording is all important within an Act of Parliament.

As for the ripples.. anybody have a surfboard? . It's certainly started some debate anyway.

What if the brick was thrown at, not dropped,as in shot at, not accidentlly shot..

I will ask my wifes uncle about some of these things, he works as a solicitor specialising in employment law.