(Yet) More Elfin Safety nonsense

Mr Tim,
I too am passionate about H&S but only if it is sensible!
In our trade we are taught how to do electrical joints using a variety of methods using various equip[ment from soldering irons, oxy-acetylene etc.
This knowledge is passed down from experienced men to apprentices with strict instructions to do it right because of the dangerous consequences if they don't. Recently we were all given a hand out telling us how to do something some of us have been doing for over 30 years. It was printed by a faceless name who had never been on a workshop floor and obviously didn't know a spanner from a hammer! It was full of errors! Yet we were told we had to do it this way. One bloke decided to give the manager a demo. It took 3 times longer and under various tests failed miserably! It failed a conductivity test, a stress test and insulation resistance test.
All supposedly in the name of H&S!
 
To conny

Its up to the experienced guys to put managment straight about wrong procedures put in place, if you all got together and explained how impractical the assessment is then hopefully they'd have sense to update it.

It sounds like you've been doing sensible verbal and practical method statements for some time so perhaps you should volunteer to do the amendments or even rewrite them?
 
Mr Tim,
even our manager, who served his time on the shop floor and worked his way up, agreed when he handed it out it was a load of tosh but he had to give it to us.
It was duly returned with a polite but positive covering letter that in future before anyone sent these 'brochures' to various branches they should visit a branch for themselves and see what procedures were taking place.
Our company is on a cost cutting exercise at the moment and there is talk of redundancies. believe me a lot of us know where they can save a fortune with one swift swing!
And time out the day for 'Toolbox Talks'!
Flamin' Nora! If we don't have the common sense to lift a box, foot a ladder, isolate a circuit or whatever other ridiculous thing 'they' want to instruct us about we shouldn't be in a blinking factory!
 
H&S is important and necessary, it saves lives and prevents injury. It's also important to differentiate the advice from the Health and Safety Executive from that coming out in local workplaces written by some moron in an office.

The law does not expect you to eliminate all risk, but you are required to protect people as far as ‘reasonably practicable’

The idea of school kids needing clip-ons came about as a result of manufacturers and suppliers wanting to sell clip-ons, not as a result of any risk assessment.

Anyone remember the 'Myth' that traditional poles were banned in new fire stations? The HSE took a lot of stick over that one and like the majority of these 'Myths'
A. The HSE were not involved,
B. Shiny slidy poles were not banned.

They are still in use and they can be incorporated in new build fire stations.

First aiders can still give out pain killers
Ladders and step ladders have not been banned
Children have not been banned from throwing snow balls
People can still swim in winter temperature lakes
Bonfires have not been banned.

Now, go do a five step risk assessment and you will find that you can get out of bed and function quite normally. And you do not need to wear a hard hat in an open field, or wear gloves when looking at scaffolding, on or off site.
 
Johnmelad502 said:
...And you do not need to wear a hard hat in an open field...
Click to expand...
Well, that's not true, seeing as I *was* made to wear one. Only I didn't, I just walked off site instead and went back to the office. Eventually, someone else went from the office, who was willing to kow-tow.

The trouble with Elfin Safety legislation is the draconian power that it has given to little tin gods with an overblown sense of self-importance, who insist on applying a one-size-fits-all approach to it, rather than an ounce of commonsense.
 
Shytalkz said:
Johnmelad502 said:
...And you do not need to wear a hard hat in an open field...
Click to expand...
Well, that's not true, seeing as I *was* made to wear one.
Click to expand...

If your company has a one size fits all policy (bad management) then of course you have to follow it. What I am saying is this policy is local and does not come from the H&SE. HSE would not ever be that prescriptive.

Put the blame where it lies, don't attribute it to HSE Policy.

Most bad H&S policies come about as a result of idiot management listening to rumour instead of checking the source out or doing a simple RA of their own.
 
It was the knobby builder's site policy.

Which stemmed from HSE legislation.

Which threatens draconian actions for non-compliance.

Which organisation has loads of puffed-up self-important jackasses who have found the only place in life where they can hold sway over anyone.

Ergo, ultimately, it is all due to HSE policy.
 
Shytalkz said:
It was the knobby builder's site policy.
Click to expand...

Now it's a building site, not an open field? There is a difference.

Building%20site%205.jpg


Bronner_Rd__11_ac_and_16_ac.JPG
 
Yes there is and it was the second one, albeit without grass.

Regardless, pray tell, with regard to the the first pic, what demon threat to the health and safety of an individual is there that could be assuaged by the wearing of a (less than three years old) hard hat? Even allowing for the fact that that is not a UK building site :wink:
 
That was about all I could come up with when arguing with the site agent as to why I had no intention of putting the hat on.

Pointing out to him that if I was up the top of the scaffold I would not have to wear one as there was nothing to fall on my head was met with the party response that it was a hard hat site and I had to therefore wear one :roll:.
 
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