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Bradford District Chamber of Trade Bulletin                               Page 2

MEMBER ADVERTS

You will see from the last two  pages of our bulletin that some members have

already taken advantage of our

"ADVERT SCHEME"  The scheme only costs £15 for an advert which

will be published in every bulletin we send out for a full twelve months.

If you are interested please

contact Val who will arrange the necessary extraction of your

artwork and/or design

NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE

Members are reminded the national minimum wage from 1st October 2003 is

£4.50 for employees aged 22 and over and £3.80 for employees 18-22.

Members also need to be aware that a recent ruling now permits former employees who were not paid the minimum wage during their employment can now claim any

shortfall EVEN AFTER LEAVING.

OLD £5 NOTES

REMEMBER the old £5 notes

featuring George Stephenson on the rear will not be legal tender after 21/11/03.

The new style note features

Elizabeth Fry on the back.

ACCIDENT BOOKS

If your business has to have an accident book, a new design will be required after 31/12/03 as the book must comply with the Data Protection Act.

Copies of the book are available at a special

discounted rate for our members.

Please use the enclosed form ASAP to order

ATTACHED PUBLICATIONS

Risk Assessments & Typical Hazards

3

Every business irrespective of size  and workforce must conduct a risk assessment for the workplace

Risk assessments can be dealt with via five simple stages.

• What is the hazard,
  

• Who might be hurt,
  

• How might they be hurt,
  

• Take steps to minimise the risk 
  

• Try and eliminate the risk altogether.
  

Your risk assessment should also consider who could be at risk and special consideration should be given to

vulnerable groups such as children disabled people and pregnant women.

More than one third of all injuries leading to three or more days off work are caused by manual handling. Retailers are particularly susceptible to this type of injury. Slips and trips cost employers millions of pounds each year, most of it is not covered by insurance. Again retailers and their customers are

particularly at risk of this type of accident. Other hazards include the use of dangerous machinery such as slicing machines, compactors etc. Yet more arise from hazardous substances . Drivers face all the usual traffic hazards

MAKE SURE your staff are aware of the risks and take steps to minimise them.