Is a financial trading company excluded from fire drill?

[Guest Mary]

I work for a trading company and it has been agreed that when there is a fire drill ther is no need for the traders to leave the office due to the nature of their roles and the financial impact it may have on the fire company. One of our fire marshals has just advised that legally we should have a disclaimer in place where the traders agree that the company will not be held responsible if anything happens during the fire drills (Do not have the right to sue the company). Is it a legal requirement to have a disclaimer or best practice?

[Tom Sutton]

Why don't traders carry out their training/drills outside trading hours, being late occasionally would be worth while if it helped to safe their lives in an emergency. This would mean you would not need to sign any disclaimers and you would be within the fire safety law, there is no exceptions for article 21 training.

[Guest MaryA]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for coming back to me. We’ve never considered that, it’s a great idea. If they didn’t carry out the drills out of hours, would we need them to sign a disclaimer? Do you have an example of what the disclaimer should say?

Many thanks in advance for your help.

Mary

[Tom Sutton]

The disclaimer appear to be the company covering their backs, I am not aware of any requirement in the fire safety legislation. Check out The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. As I have previously said, there is no exceptions for "Article 21 Training" which means the traders should be taking part in training and fire drills.

[green-foam]

I can't help but wonder, did the "Traders" wake up one day and instantly become "Traders" I think not, no doubt they practised first. Practice makes perfect.

I also wonder what will happen in a real fire, will they stay there and say "its ok, I am a Trader, I don't need to evacuate, its a fire drill, isn't it? where do I go?