Comments on: Health & Safety Gone Mad?

By: mike harvey-rice

mike harvey-rice — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:30:51 +0000

I understand full body harness and lanyard, fixed to a secure point, is required for all window fitters when working above ground floor, so as to ensure that should they topple out of the opening the restraint will save them.

Excuse me Mrs customer but can I screw my eye bolt into your wardrobe or would the wall be OK.

You couldn’t make it up.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:18:23 +0000

OK, OK so their are some safety professionals who are a little OTT. I see two sides to safety

1. Protecting the business – Compliance fines, Claims, reputation and lost time
2. People leaving as they came to work – avoiding injury/death/ill health in the first place

Its sometimes a dificult ballance and cant comment on your personal experiances. Safety law leaves alot to Employers disgression and this can be a good or bad thing at times.

Some professionals are aware and working towards improving the image of “Elf and safety” including the HSE with sensible risk management.

I offer set-up & support in key H&S requirements to new & Small businesses from only£1/day (£365/year) with an aim to simple, jargon free, sensible safety. All I am saying is with Blame claims culture the media and a few over zellous “Advisors” dont be turned off to real safety and their are some Advisors who really want to help being a benifit to business.

If any one wants to chat about this or has a question wisit mprince.co.uk and visit the free advice page.

Mark

By: David Bingham

David Bingham — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:55:27 +0000

Well it seems to me that many health & safety officers need to have a little more respect and common sense. I’d love to say more but I don’t want to encourage a costly revenge attack

By: Andrew Green

Andrew Green — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:42:22 +0000

I’m just going through all the risk assessments and I’ve realised I can not run a window fitting company by complying to all current rehulation so I’m changing my name to:

“Greenway Health and safety windows and conservatories not installed at your home unless your home and surrounding area is on perfectly flat ground and I can fix my ladders to your wall with fixing bolts Ltd”

I think it’s quite catchy and I would rank quite well for alot of searches on the internet too, the adword spend may increase slightly though.

I whole heartidly agree that sites should be safe for staff and clients alike but sometimes you would like to think that we would give people the credit to be able to use their own common sense, we are getting a nation of PC idiots no wonder all the manufacturing plants are moving abroad, they don’t have to put up with dim witted H&S guys.. Not all of them are like this mind, I’ve got a cracking guy helping me anyone who wants their number give me a bell.

By: Paul Godwin

Paul Godwin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:59:31 +0000

Just consider this: we have around 2.5 million unemployed in the UK. It would be significantly higher if it were not for the H&S industry that keeps so many jobsworths in work. Overzealous Health & Safety is a scourge but of course, we must all be protected in our workplaces. But where is the balance and who provides it? H&S and the people that run it are self-perpetuating.

By: Michael John

Michael John — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:13:07 +0000

You seem to discussing sbjects close to my heart in recent days, close to my heart for all the wrong reasons. Health & Safety the world has gone mad my staff need training if they wish to climb a step ladder in the work place even though they can do so without training at home, should we be made stand in line to take some sort of test at B&Q before we purchase a ladder or carry a driving licence type card to tell people we are qualified to climb a step ladder.
Some years ago in a past life I was visted by a young lade from the HSE to carry out a factory assesment. Before entering the factory she donned all her PPE before entering including hard hat and hi vis jacket. When confronted by an Urban SV530 corner cleaner she was most concerned and proceeded to take photos so as to get advise about the machine, which by the way was only 2 month old and was fully guarded. When I asked what her issue was with the machine she replied what’s to stop an operator leaning over in to the machine during the working cycle and putting his or her hands in the cutting blade, to which I replied I wouldn’t give a job to anyone that stupid. Should employees not take on some responsibility for their own safety?

By: David Bingham

David Bingham — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:27:55 +0000

Jon, I think I understand what you mean and yes, agreed.

By: Renegade Conservatory Guy

Renegade Conservatory Guy — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:22:36 +0000

This is why I love India so much. The complete opposite applies there.

RCG

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:15:45 +0000

This is one of the problems in the world at the moment. It is driven form the healthy values of respect for everyone and their rights. But, when it goes over the top it starts to become destructive by denying the reality that you cannot have a perfectly safe and equitable world, at times you simply have to get on with things.

A healthy world is one in which the healthy entrepreneurial values and balanced by the healthy welfare values. Either one starts to win out at the expense of the other and the result is either exploitative business practise or excessive regulation and political correctness.

http://righttobe.wordpress.com