Out of hours policy
The School classifies the normal working day as 08.00 – 18.00. While the School of Clinical Dentistry does not expect research students or staff to undertake experimental work in laboratories out of hours, we understand this is sometimes unavoidable.
Out of hours working
It is recognised that there may be times during the week (Monday to Friday) when experiments beyond 18:00 are taking place. On these occasions, work in laboratories up to 21:00 would be allowable on the understanding that:
a) the experiment taking place is not on the Out of Hours Research Barred List and
b) the individual involved in an on-going experiment is signed into the Out of Hours book and the room number of the laboratory in which they are working is entered in the Location column.
c) the individual has undertaken out of hours training and has approval to be in the building out of hours.
Saturday and Sunday working
d) If an individual wishes to work at the weekend, in addition to a), b) and c) above, a Request for Weekend Working form should also be completed. It will require the approval of the relevant PI or supervisor, a summary of the laboratory work to be carried out, the COSHH/Risk Assessment numbers of the relevant procedures and the laboratory room number. The PI or Supervisor in signing the form is confirming that the risk assessments listed on the form have been undertaken for the relevant research experiment(s) and they are in agreement that the individual needs to undertake the work at a weekend and has the necessary out of hours approval.
A Request for weekend working form can cover a period of up to eight weeks. Beyond eight weeks, a further form should be completed.
The form needs to be signed off by Dr Craig Murdoch, the Core Facility Research Lead or, if unavailable, the relevant academic responsible for that core facility (Dr Aileen Crawford – Tissue Culture, Dr Lynne Bingle – Histology, Dr Graham Stafford – Microbiology & Molecular Biology, Prof Fiona Boissonade – Microscopy, Dr Cheryl Miller – Materials) if unavailable. The fully completed form then needs to be filed in the Out of Hours Research Weekend Working folder, which is kept at the Porters Desk and will be made available on the counter on a Friday evening.
Spot checks will be undertaken throughout the year.
Failure to comply with this procedure will result in a research student or member of staff’s out of hours facility being removed from their U-Card and could result in disciplinary action.
Barred Procedures list
The list below details the procedures that must never be undertaken out of hours. For the purposes of this list, out of hours is before 08.00 and after 18.00 Monday to Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday.
The Request for weekend working form is available for download below, along with signed copies of the policy documents detailed above.