A quite humourous article on OH&S requirements in the field.
http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/03/07/3958255.htm
MV, DO and a few others may feel a sense of deja vu whilst reading.
*Shakes head *
Any time OH&S becomes more than a mob of people getting together to talk about and work on making their job safer, it seems to lose its way in process.
22 Australians have already been killed at work this year (almost exactly half the national year-to-date road toll) which is 22 too many. Although some of the people killed at work are killed by road crashes, the people involved were nonetheless at work at the time.
Some of the examples given in that article are tenuous at best – Others are difficult to believe. Frankly, it’s what I would expect from a shill.
It’s not perfect, but it’s keeping people alive and well – every year workplaces get a tiny bit safer – don’t hate it.
Some of it is to do with the cultural trending toward you will start school at two-years-old and retire at eighty-years-old – everyone shall work and wear the uniform.
I sit on the WH&S committee at work. Once every three months. I get to use my valuable time in a teleconference hearing about incidents and near misses such as having to brake hard when leaving a car park. Or how well the new online fire drill works (I shit you not!).
I also get to wear dark, heavy trousers and my sleeves rolled down in 30 degree heat with humidity over the high 80s to ensure I get heat stroke before sunburn.
I know what this guy’s on about. It gets harder and harder to do fieldwork. I have no room in my ute for my equipment as it’s filled with traffic cones and signs despite the fact I’ve never needed to use them. There’s nothing wrong with a safe workplace. There is a huge problem with WH&S policies written by people who don’t do the work and have nothing better to do than fix problems that aren’t there.
Teleost said:
I sit on the WH&S committee at work. Once every three months. I get to use my valuable time in a teleconference hearing about incidents and near misses such as having to brake hard when leaving a car park. Or how well the new online fire drill works (I shit you not!).I also get to wear dark, heavy trousers and my sleeves rolled down in 30 degree heat with humidity over the high 80s to ensure I get heat stroke before sunburn.
I know what this guy’s on about. It gets harder and harder to do fieldwork. I have no room in my ute for my equipment as it’s filled with traffic cones and signs despite the fact I’ve never needed to use them. There’s nothing wrong with a safe workplace. There is a huge problem with WH&S policies written by people who don’t do the work and have nothing better to do than fix problems that aren’t there.
agree.
sibeen said:
A quite humourous article on OH&S requirements in the field.http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2014/03/07/3958255.htm
MV, DO and a few others may feel a sense of deja vu whilst reading.
chuckle
What can I say….
OH&S in many places is used to threaten and intimidate the workforce to remain quiet whilst life threatening practices remain. For example I was lectured to for not using both hand rails whilst walking up to a tool box meeting whilst 100m away broken asbestos laden material was strewn around a worksite that no manager wanted to talk about. They refused to talk about it and the safety officer I could never get hold of.
XSTRATA
Transfield is another offender, very good at policy , zero safety
Everyone’s an expert on WH&S.
Except for wookie, everyone knows it’s the unions use WH&S to get one over the bosses, not the other way round.
But in spite of it all being such a farce, it seems that work place fatalities are actually going down.
See page 3:
http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/758/Key-WHS-Statistics-2013.pdf
Rule 303 said:
It’s not perfect, but it’s keeping people alive and well – every year workplaces get a tiny bit safer – don’t hate it.
Every time I feel the rage at yet another stoopid OH&S policy being implemented, I just think the above and I accept that even though I don’t like it, it is “a good thing”.
The Rev Dodgson said:
Everyone’s an expert on WH&S.Except for wookie, everyone knows it’s the unions use WH&S to get one over the bosses, not the other way round.
But in spite of it all being such a farce, it seems that work place fatalities are actually going down.
See page 3:
http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/758/Key-WHS-Statistics-2013.pdf
With a huge work area covered with all that asbestos , they didn’t want to know. The unions are stand over men , I’ve never seen them work for anyone except themselves.
The shop steward if the powerstation rubber stamped one of the electricians put of the place within 2 hours when he mentioned that people were getting shocks . He was a grubby little man in the pocket of the management.
wookiemeister said:
The Rev Dodgson said:
Everyone’s an expert on WH&S.Except for wookie, everyone knows it’s the unions use WH&S to get one over the bosses, not the other way round.
But in spite of it all being such a farce, it seems that work place fatalities are actually going down.
See page 3:
http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/758/Key-WHS-Statistics-2013.pdf
The unions are the last people who champion safety.With a huge work area covered with all that asbestos , they didn’t want to know. The unions are stand over men , I’ve never seen them work for anyone except themselves.
That’s more like it. Just stick to the talk-back party line as usual.
Slightly off topic, but OH & S has finally caught up to the dangers posed by ergonomic equipment. Those kneeling chairs that were supposed to improve posture caused an excessive number of injuries through tripping over them. Big balls to sit on caused an excessive number of injuries by slipping off and damaging the coccyx.
A bit late, ergonomic equipment has been causing injuries since 1987. But at least in the correct direction.
I had to laugh
Just today I had to interesting experience of the `new work at height’s rules in action
I can not now get out of the cabin of my truck without having a valid work at heights permit and associated paperwork, which I have to fill out in the mine management offices…
which involves getting out of the cabin…
which requires a work at heights permit
which involves getting out of the cabin…
which involves…….
(repeat adnauseousium….)
Truck drivers now require a work at heights permit f they are above 1.8m above the ground on some mine sites
(um… my cabin is 2.1m and has both an unenclosed ladder or stairs with an angle greater than 45 degrees)
oh woo is me- doomed to never leave the cabin of the truck again without some kind soul filling out the necessary paperwork and erecting approved scaffolding around my trucks cabin door….
wonder if the exec that ordered the 120 grand 4×4 toyota landcruiser with every option on the books will find a way out so he can get delivery of his shiny new toy???
You bet he would lol
(I was told they would `look into it’)
Hey Boppa, nice tosee you again. You still have my email?