Dermatitis & Employers Obligation in the Workplace

Certain workplaces where a person is handling cosmetics or chemically enhanced products, for example, can carry risks for the worker handling such goods.

A simple way to provide for safety in the workplace in this instance is to provide proper gloves which will provide protection.

It is the employees obligation to wear the gloves but it is the employers responsibility to risk assess a work environment matter and play an active part in the duty of care towards the employee. It should be efficiency plus safety as the modus operandi.

People who get a skin condition, such as eczema, it can be very painful and provide for a disturbance to their life.

Employers have duties to employees in the workplace to provide for a safe system of work.

The general duties of employers under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Regulations 2005 Act are:

• Ensure the safety, health and welfare of employees at work as far as is practicable.
• Manage and conduct work activities in a way that ensures the health, safety and welfare of workers.
• Prevent any improper conduct or behaviour that is likely to endanger the safety, health and welfare of employees.
• Design, provide and upkeep a safe workplace and equipment.
• Provide protection against exposure to harmful articles, substances, noise, vibrations, ionising, radiations and other physical agents.
• Provide planned, organised, tested, maintained and revised work systems.
• Offer and maintain facilities and arrangements at work for employee welfare.
• Provide information, instruct, train and supervise employees.
• Determine and implement safety, health and welfare strategies.
• Have regard to the overall principles of prevention in cases where risk can’t be removed or sufficiently controlled and offer suitable protective gear and equipment.
• Prepare and revise appropriate measures to be enforced in case of an emergency situation.
• Report accidents.
• Obtain the services of a qualified person for the purpose of ensuring employee safety, health and welfare.

The employer must carry out an assessment of hazards identification, in an effort to control the relevant risks in the workplace. A risk assessment should be conducted.

Section 62 of the Health and Safety Act of 2007 states

 An employer shall ensure that, without prejudice to section 8 of the Act, personal protective equipment is provided for use by the employer’s employees where risks at a place of work to the safety or health of employees cannot be avoided or sufficiently limited by technical means of collective protection or by measures, methods or procedures of work organisation.

Personal Injury Guidelines

The personal injury judicial guidelines detail in categories a, b, c, d the damages which can be awarded when the injury is psoriasis or eczema, for example.

(a) Dermatitis of both hands, with cracking and soreness, affecting employment and domestic capability, possibly with some psychological sequelae, expected to last more than seven years and perhaps indefinitely. €30,000-€55,000

(b) Rash covering other parts of the body which lasts more than three years and may continue. €18,000-€35,000

(c) Dermatitis of one or both hands, continuing for a significant period, but settling within two to three years with treatment and/or use of gloves for specific tasks. €7,000-€16,000

(d) Itching, irritation of, and/or rashes on one or both hands, but resolving within six months with treatment. A short lived aggravation of a pre-existing skin condition will also fall within this bracket. €500-€3,000.