Preventing at Work Road Traffic Incidents

BECTU response to the Health & Safety Executive Task Group

26 April 2001

I write on behalf of BECTU, the trade union in the audiovisual and live entertainment sectors. Rather than responding to the document as a whole, we wish to draw your attention to one specific issue which is significant for a large number of our freelance members working in the film industry and in independent production for television.

Our members in these sectors will typically work long daily hours during any given production, which may be either in a studio or a (sometimes remote) location. Since freelances have to take work wherever it arises, they are often faced with long home to work journeys on top of a long working day. This has been a great concern to us, since we have unfortunately had to deal with resulting personal injury claims arising from road traffic accidents on such journeys. The issue of working hours and fatigue is clearly relevant in these cases.

We recognise that home to work journeys are not necessarily counted as part of the working day. However, given the nature of this industry (dispersed locations, a mobile and freelance labour force), we believe that the obligation to undertake such journeys should be born in mind by all employers and should be taken account of in any responsible approach to risk management.

We would therefore ask that the principles of risk management should be applied to all driving tasks arising in connection with work and that this should encompass the circumstances outlined above in our sector.

We look forward to the further progress of the Task Group's work.