Home  About the portal  Projects  Courses  Contact us  

HSE portal courses - Workplace welfare and general working environment (OSH001)

Module 1: Welfare at work

1.4 Changing rooms:
If the work activity requires employees to change into and wear specialist clothing (overalls, a uniform, thermal clothing etc), then the employer must provide enough changing rooms for the number of people expected to use them. Each changing room should:
  • Be readily accessible.
  • Contain, or lead directly to, clothing storage and washing facilities.
  • Have seating.
  • Have a means for hanging clothes _ a hook or peg may be sufficient.
  • Give users sufficient privacy.
Separate use of changing facilities should be available to men and women.


1.5 Clothes storage:
To prevent employees’ own clothing coming into contact with work-soiled clothing or getting dirty or wet, separate storage for clean and contaminated clothing should be provided. The storage should:
  • Allow wet clothing to be hung up to dry out during the course of the day.
  • Be well ventilated.

1.6 Sources of information on workplace welfare requirements:
Information on workplace welfare requirements can be obtained from:
  • Enforcement bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive (website: http://www.hse.gov.uk) and OSHA (website: http://www.osha.gov).
  • Professional bodies such as IOSH (website: http://www.iosh.com) and IIRSM (website: http://www.iirsm.org).
This course utilizes public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence.