Lunch today was with a relative who was recently tasked with refurbishing a pharmacist.
In the process, he was taken to task by a building inspector who insisted that the staff area had to include a disabled toilet. My relative pointed out that there was no public access to this area, as that was forbidden by law (to keep the stock safe). It was also a legal requirement to elevate the pharmacist's area, as a result of which wheelchair access was impossible and pharmacies were exempt from disability rules, given that disabled staff physically cannot work in a pharmacist. But the inspector was adamant; there had to be a disabled toilet.
Explain that; the law forbids any disabled person from working there or from gaining access to that area, yet requires that provision must be made for the needs of the people who may not go there.
Mad.
That's joined up government for you...
ReplyDeleteAbsurdity after absurdity and what is so depressing is it is never going to change except for the worse.
ReplyDeleteOnce you give power to bureaucrats you will never pries it from there fingers.
Meet with them every day P.
ReplyDeleteSome are very reasonable people and happily find reasons or precedents to alter the more absurd rules.
Others take a delight in quoting rules and will not move an inch.
The only difference I can discern between the inspectors is the borough they work for or the seniority of their role.
Oh , and some are just arseholes.
It seems ludicrous if customers are totally excluded from this area at all times. Was there no appeal process?
ReplyDeleteI think you are all missing the very serious danger that an employee may spontaneously become disabled during the working day.
ReplyDeleteI know that if that happened to me, the first thing I'd want to do would be to take a slash.
Julia - gosh, it's almost as it "joined up government" was nothing but a soundbite, isn't it! Surely not...!
ReplyDeleteAntisthenes - yes, it does always seem to be a one-way street.
Bill - the reasonable ones do rather show up the unreasonable ones. Or do they make it worse, by covering up the real effect of the rules?
M - there may well be an appeals process. But how much does a lawyer cost? And how much does a disabled toilet cost? And how would one define "winning" in those circumstances?
Albert - a good point, but I think the only person at risk of becoming disabled there and then was the inspector...