7th May 2006, 12:47 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by drpeterwardle
1. Welfare facilities.
Males and Females sharing toilet facilities. It is perfectly acceptable for toilets to be shared between contractors and archaeologists. It would be stupid not to. It is also acceptable for there not to be separate facilities for females provided that:
each convenience is in a separate room in which the door can be secured on the inside. SCAUM manual page 5.2
You may not like sharing toilets etc with ?ladies? or building contractors but it is the norm. I do not understand why you think that archaeologist deserve better than this.
The situation regarding the provision of welfare facilities is slightly more complicated than 'It is perfectly acceptable for toilets to be shared between contractors and archaeologists'.
The law does say that men and women can share toilet facilities providing that they are lockable from the inside. But it also says (in the Approved Code of Conduct that accompanies the Act) that in the case of facilities used by women that there must be a method of disposal of sanitary wear etc. This would seem to exclude most Portaloo type installations which in my experience rarely include wastebins.
The Approved Code of Conduct also states that there should be an adequate number of toilets. 1 to 6 staff requires 1 toilet. 6-25 staff requires 2 toilets. However the calculation for the number of toilets is calculated separately for men and women. So that on a site with 3 men and 2 women, 2 toilets would be required i.e 1-3 men equals one toilet, 1-2 women equals one toilet. In such instances there seems to be no problem in designating one toilet for men and one for women.
There is also the problem on a lot of sites where the site hut is used as tool store, office, changing room and eating facility. To have any combination of these (other than possibly tool store and office) is excluded under the act. Again in my experience, the provision of separate changing facilities for men and women is rare on archaeological sites.