How safe is your workplace?

[awa355]

We have a page in the Hazard's folder that is supposed to be filled out for 'near miss', or potential accidents. I mean, where do you draw the line.

[R650R]

We have a page in the Hazard's folder that is supposed to be filled out for 'near miss', or potential accidents. I mean, where do you draw the line.

Its anything that could cause death, serious injury or permanent disability, pretty simple.

[Akzle]

One day at work, I ordered a Hot Chocolate, but instead I got a coffee of some sort.

It was a close one, but thanks to our internal procedures I managed to avert disaster.

you went upside that bitches head?

We have a page in the Hazard's folder that is supposed to be filled out for 'near miss', or potential accidents. I mean, where do you draw the line.

they're near-hits. which expresses more apropriately just how dangerous they is...

[caspernz]

The English language is funny, the term near-miss is in my thinking an accident, for one nearly missed...thus it signifies a hit?!

Only issue I have is with the ever increasing H & S focus, actual productivity keeps declining, tasks take longer and yet in some firms workers are expected to perform the job just as fast as in the olden days.

And in this ever more PC world, ensuring a safe environment to work in leaves little wiggle room for creative interpretation. Quite some years back I had a numpty who wanted to keep smoking on a forecourt while I was delivering a load of fuel. In my defense I did ask him politely to cease and desist, ie fuck off, but only once. He thought I'd ask twice, but instead I just hogtied him and left him on the lawn next to the shop for Mr Plod to collect. Yeah, it helped that I knew a couple of the local boys in blue who were always up for some harmless fun...

I'm all for health and safety in the workplace, yet in practical terms I'm always amused when someone who has never done my job tells me how to do it safer...

[mossy1200]

And both of those .......... do the job at our place/site.

I work with a very safe bunch and we do everything possible to keep everything under control. Nobody is afraid to say stop work if conditions change and what we do is at the top end of caution required.

BUT

The issue is we do this and the NZ Safety rep for the main contractor will look at a safety plan following the latest workplace safety preferred method to access an area by machinery and refuse the method claiming a ladder is safer because of a risk that machinery hydraulic failure will leave us stranded 5metres up. I am sure I see a ladder as being the least desired method of notifiable height access possible on Workplace NZ standards. Big conflict of interests going on.

[Big Dog]

Did working at heights full day training today and then found out it doesn't include harness inspection anymore. That's an advanced course now with an extra days training required. Tomorrow I have a full day training for mobile platforms. In 2 weeks time I have a full days training for confined spaces.
Three weeks ago I had a half day induction for a site. Last week another induction for the same site under a different service provider plus a 3hr online induction course. A while ago I had an electrical registration refresher course to renew my practising licence and then a site safe first aid course plus cpr.
We had a half day toolbox meeting about the changes and workplace NZ ability to send blame and fines up the food chain.

I was thinking of trying something new soon. A SOLID DAYS WORK to pay for these courses which are normally around $250 each and lose a days productivity to teach me the slowest way possible to carry out work and spend a huge amount on the latest gear to do it.

Im ticking all the boxes though.

So you are now qualified to have a shocking time in a small box while tied up and suspended?
What exactly do you do?

[mossy1200]

So you are now qualified to have a shocking time in a small box while tied up and suspended?
What exactly do you do?

Covert operations at the 4th highest level. God, satellites and aircraft are the top 3. Lots more boxes to tick before I am the big boss

[caspernz]

So you are now qualified to have a shocking time in a small box while tied up and suspended?
What exactly do you do?

There is an S & M club in Petone that broadly fits the description of activities Mossy mentions...

[mossy1200]

There is an S & M club in Petone that broadly fits the description of activities Mossy mentions...

Be a lot of paperwork filling a JSA out in that profession.
Wonder what their injury register looks like.

[caspernz]

Be a lot of paperwork filling a JSA out in that profession.
Wonder what their injury register looks like.

Meh, it all happens behind closed doors. No hi-viz and no hot work permits needed, although plenty of hot stuff goes down there...or so I've been told

[mossy1200]

Meh, it all happens behind closed doors. No hi-viz and no hot work permits needed, although plenty of hot stuff goes down there...or so I've been told

A Workplace NZ visit would be amusing. Just about all the equipment would be banned ( I would expect).

[Voltaire]

Are some of those Safety Training companies milking it...?
I did a Site Safe course a couple of years back and it was pretty dumbed down, and if you see a plonker standing on the top step of a ladder you could be blamed if there is an accident....give me a break.

[Oakie]

Oh boy. I'm an HSE Coordinator but I like to think I'm not an arse about it. Anyway ...

Did working at heights full day training today ... . A SOLID DAYS WORK to pay for these courses which are normally around $250 each and lose a days productivity to teach me the slowest way possible to carry out work and spend a huge amount on the latest gear to do it.

Buit if it saves you a couple of days off work you're ahead ...

Im ticking all the boxes though.

. Yep, I used to be a box ticker. Thought I was doing great until I came face to face with a guy in a huge amount of pain from a steam burn. Now I'm a problem fixer and if I tick a few boxes along the way ... all the better

So much of it seems to be an exercise in arse covering with improved safety being a by product.

Agreed unfortunatley. As above, should be improved safety which covers your arse as a by-product. [/QUOTE]

I get the shits when the Safety Doris does an audit, she ticks all the boxes on her clip board , she would not have a bloody clue about what is really going on , just checks all the test tags , snivels about access ways & trip hazards.

You are quite right. The problem we HSE dicks have is getting the people who do know what is really going on interested enough to do that audit stuff or to show a genuine interest. I find that waiting until one of their colleagues gets seriously injured can help.

I've been working at a large site where one of the businesses competitive edges is we are safer than our competitors.

And that is important in a world where the principal can be fined a butt load of money if a contractor screws up on site. In the last year I've been both hellishly nervous over the way one contractor did his thing on our site and majorly impressed by the steps another took. The latter may charge a little more but I know who is getting our future business.

We have a page in the Hazard's folder that is supposed to be filled out for 'near miss', or potential accidents. I mean, where do you draw the line.

To me, a near miss can pretty much only be caused by a hazard or a hazardous situation so 'near miss' is valid given that we ask for hazards to be reported (even though near miss reporting is an utter pain in the arse). Guy killed at Lyttleton recently because his colleagues did not report repeated near misses in one piece of machinery.

The English language is funny, the term near-miss is in my thinking an accident, for one nearly missed...thus it signifies a hit?!

I'm thinking "that was near ... but it was a miss"

I'm all for health and safety in the workplace, yet in practical terms I'm always amused when someone who has never done my job tells me how to do it safer...

Yes I struggle with telling people how to do a job that I don't do. What I've found can work is "So Mark, this is the hazard ... how do you reckon we can fix it?"

... and the NZ Safety rep for the main contractor will look at a safety plan following the latest workplace safety preferred method to access an area by machinery and refuse the method claiming a ladder is safer because of a risk that machinery hydraulic failure will leave us stranded 5metres up. I am sure I see a ladder as being the least desired method of notifiable height access possible on Workplace NZ standards. Big conflict of interests going on.

Should have just said if the hydraulics fail you can stick a ladder up for them to come down on. Yeah ... one large contractor has banned ladders completely on their sites. Everything is by scissor-lift or scaffolding.

Whew. Done. Have at it guys.

[mossy1200]

Are some of those Safety Training companies milking it...?
I did a Site Safe course a couple of years back and it was pretty dumbed down, and if you see a plonker standing on the top step of a ladder you could be blamed if there is an accident....give me a break.

I think they have created far to many 1day courses at $250 per head per course. Its not only the cost but the days of lost productivity. Our small company has 36 days worth of courses in total booked in a 3 weeks period. 12 guys 3 days each and that's just heights, confined and working platforms and its every 2 years each ticket. Its money that the customer ends up absorbing. The practical assessment side of the 3 could be done in 5 hrs total and the rest could have been done online. I have had to relearn putting a harness and checking its condition 3 times one for each course. Today I didn't need adjust it as I remembered where I hung it up yesterday.

[caspernz]

A Workplace NZ visit would be amusing. Just about all the equipment would be banned ( I would expect).

Haha, yeah I do recall thinking along similar lines. Imagine the wording on the waiver

But hey, in all seriousness, the focus on H & S only works if the whole bureaucracy within an organisation buys into the "safety first" ethos that comes about from putting the focus on H & S in the workplace. In my industry we have a few serious issues, that keep getting shoved into file 13 because the real world solution requires a rethink of the approach. By this I mean the real solution would cost real money in terms of a one off capital investment. Business structures have evolved over time and it now becomes a hot potato as to who actually fronts up with the dosh to solve some of these said problems.

Then I'll be blunt and admit that a good portion of these H & S initiatives don't get any traction because the "guys who've been on the job for a long time" take too long to adapt to the new and improved ways of doing things. The reasons can be varied, and I'm not defending anyone here, but the old adage of "we've done it like this for 30 years" comes to the fore and then the old chestnut of peer pressure rears its ugly head. So if I change my ways and work the new way, the weird thing is there will be talk behind my back. The crew ends up being divided in their thinking...

The long and the short of it is simple, my workplace is as safe as myself and my fellow workers make it. The weakest link in the chain comes to mind...