Yup.its like banning kids from playing Conkers.
Totallly bonkers as the HSE have confirmed.
Totallly bonkers as the HSE have confirmed.
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Fibreglass ladder?
- Thread starter MisterBoy
- Start date
Indeed. A friend of mine has a fairly senior position in HSE and he is very annoyed, and quite 'upset', by the way that so many things get greatly over-interpreted (and 'blamed on HSE'), resulting in all these stories about seemingly crazy rules/practices ("this coffee may be hot", "this peanut butter may contain peanuts" etc.) which get (he obviously thinks unfairly) such a bad name/'press' for HSE.
I don't know (somewhat doubt!) that it is totally true, but he insists that all the edicts of HSE are 'sensible', and that they are 'never' as OTT as we are sometimes led to believe!
Kind Regards, John
I think in all honesty the HSE themselves don't issue too much crepe, what gets the bad press is (particularly 'big') companies solutions to risk assessments going way over the top and set in stone to the point it actually prevents an employee/contractor etc doing a job - such as no live electrical working and then expecting a circuit being faulted!
Yes, that's obviously what my HSE friend believes, and what I've always assumed is largely true.
I suspect that it could well be the lawyers of the big companies who are the most to blame - inventing way-OTT rules that they believe will "protect the company's backsides" and using HSE as the scapegoat they can 'blame'!
I have contacted HSE on 3 occasions regarding site rules/rulings which to my mind are hazardous, all 3 of those resulted in HSE site visits (they used to love inviting themselves into sites when complaints surface), HSE upheld all 3 of my question/complaint and worked through the problem. 2 were closed pending other safety issues being resolved.
That doesn't surprise me.
It would be nice to think that there would be some way in which 'action could be taken against' companies/employers who imposed seemingly inappropriate 'rules' (often 'silly' and, as you say, sometimes even dangerous) which were incorrectly 'justified' as being 'HSE requirements'!
It was amazing to see the way 3 carloads of 'inspectors' arrived, cut the chain on the gate and drove in, handed some paperwork to the person attempting to stop them entering then they dispersed across the site. All that happened while I was still on the original phone call and speaking with one of them.
How often do we hear “it’s health and safety” when we are faced with absurd rules someone has drawn up? Total nonsense sometimes. Sometimes it’s just a seemingly sensible rule blown out of all proportion or applied incorrectly to extremes as if something being done is better than nothing at all and we all suffer because of these lunatic misconceptions.
Sometimes the same person (s) misses out things that really should be addressed too.
Never underestimate the determination of complete idiots.
One case in mind of a silly use of the health and safety phrase.
My eldest son and family were in in supermarket such as Farm Foods and the manager approached my son and told him that his daughter was spilling her plastic bottle of pop on the floor and someone could slip on it whic is a health and safety problem.
My son went over to his daughter with the intention of telling her to screw the top back on tight until she was out of the place.
He looked and noticed that bottle was intact and unopened, he saw the manager again and told her that his daughter had not even opened the bottle and it was still intact, obviously another source was causing the problem.
He did expect a small apology but got “hah but health and safety! “ he replied “ you have falsely accused my daughter if spilling on the floor!” , the reply was “but health and safety! “ . To everything he said her reply was the same.
She seemed transfixed with the hah but health and safety being her only answer to anything about her error and false accusation.
Total nuts, I sometimes wonder what planet some people are on!
In that particular supermarket I had noticed a few transgressions that some of the had staff seemed oblivious to,
Set their sights on certain things and ignore common sense on everything else! Such is life, I suppose. LOL.
Sometimes the same person (s) misses out things that really should be addressed too.
Never underestimate the determination of complete idiots.
One case in mind of a silly use of the health and safety phrase.
My eldest son and family were in in supermarket such as Farm Foods and the manager approached my son and told him that his daughter was spilling her plastic bottle of pop on the floor and someone could slip on it whic is a health and safety problem.
My son went over to his daughter with the intention of telling her to screw the top back on tight until she was out of the place.
He looked and noticed that bottle was intact and unopened, he saw the manager again and told her that his daughter had not even opened the bottle and it was still intact, obviously another source was causing the problem.
He did expect a small apology but got “hah but health and safety! “ he replied “ you have falsely accused my daughter if spilling on the floor!” , the reply was “but health and safety! “ . To everything he said her reply was the same.
She seemed transfixed with the hah but health and safety being her only answer to anything about her error and false accusation.
Total nuts, I sometimes wonder what planet some people are on!
In that particular supermarket I had noticed a few transgressions that some of the had staff seemed oblivious to,
Set their sights on certain things and ignore common sense on everything else! Such is life, I suppose. LOL.
Exactly!
Indeed - and, as I said, another problem with 'obviously absurd' rules is that they will make people complacent about rules that really matter (similar to "crying wolf").
Kind Regards, John
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