Are these bad working conditions?

BOB_A_H

Reds-on-Sea wrote: »

Thanks everyone,

I'm especially concerned about the guys in the room with 5 large printers - they're all solvent based inks and it really is wretched in there. A guy with asthma walked in and literally 10 seconds later started to get lightheaded & couldn't breath & had to come out, and they spend all day in there! Even the quiet ones have started to complain I'm so sick of my employers attitude towards the welfare of it's staff.

I asked our H&S officer whether the salaried managers would put up with a sinking printing machine right in their office. She didn't give an answer. I really feel the difference in treatment between salaried & factory/production staff, having been on both sides, I can plainly see that factory staff are treated as 2nd class citizens.

I can vouch for this. For nearly 30 years I have worked in engineering workshops. This "two tier" issue has been prevalent throughout this time.

You would assume that over this period of time that you would get used to it, however I still find myself shocked, outraged and even saddened by the blatant discrimination. If the same discrimination was shown on the grounds of race, creed, or sexual orientation for example, then it would not be tolerated.

We haven't got a union, and yes, I am actively looking for a new job, and have been for a while now It's sad though, despite the problems, there's a relatively low turnover of staff, and many have been there in excess of 20 yrs, I think they're all just too downtrodden to do anything about it and believe that "this is as good as it gets"

Concur, people do become downtrodden. When this happens, trying to find the motivation to move on, or seek remedy just evaporates.
When this happens, management will cruelly exploit the situation by making these individuals believe that "this is as good as it gets"

it's the whole double standards thing, if the boot was on the other foot, and any of the management had to put up with these conditions, they wouldn't last more than a day....

*goes off to HSE website with a bee in her bonnet*

I speak very much from personal experience. I thought about listing some of the experiences I have had down the years but would be at it for hours!

I have tried down the years to highlight the problem. I have used the proper internal grievance procedures within various companies to tackle it, I have even tried to approach it from a moral direction, and embarrass management into seeing the errors of their ways. Very little has ever changed.

In the end I always end up voting with my feet. I feel this is probably the only course of action left open to yourself now.

Good Luck,

Bob.

BOB_A_H

BOB_A_H wrote: »

Reds-on-Sea wrote: »

Thanks everyone,

I'm especially concerned about the guys in the room with 5 large printers - they're all solvent based inks and it really is wretched in there. A guy with asthma walked in and literally 10 seconds later started to get lightheaded & couldn't breath & had to come out, and they spend all day in there! Even the quiet ones have started to complain I'm so sick of my employers attitude towards the welfare of it's staff.

I asked our H&S officer whether the salaried managers would put up with a sinking printing machine right in their office. She didn't give an answer. I really feel the difference in treatment between salaried & factory/production staff, having been on both sides, I can plainly see that factory staff are treated as 2nd class citizens.

I can vouch for this. For nearly 30 years I have worked in engineering workshops. This "two tier" issue has been prevalent throughout this time.

You would assume that over this period of time that you would get used to it, however I still find myself shocked, outraged and even saddened by the blatant discrimination. If the same discrimination was shown on the grounds of race, creed, or sexual orientation for example, then it would not be tolerated.

We haven't got a union, and yes, I am actively looking for a new job, and have been for a while now It's sad though, despite the problems, there's a relatively low turnover of staff, and many have been there in excess of 20 yrs, I think they're all just too downtrodden to do anything about it and believe that "this is as good as it gets"

Concur, people do become downtrodden. When this happens, trying to find the motivation to move on, or seek remedy just evaporates.
When this happens, management will cruelly exploit the situation by making these individuals believe that "this is as good as it gets"

it's the whole double standards thing, if the boot was on the other foot, and any of the management had to put up with these conditions, they wouldn't last more than a day....

*goes off to HSE website with a bee in her bonnet*

I speak very much from personal experience. I thought about listing some of the experiences I have had down the years but would be at it for hours!

I have tried down the years to highlight the problem. I have used the proper internal grievance procedures within various companies to tackle it, I have even tried to approach it from a moral direction, and embarrass management into seeing the errors of their ways. Very little has ever changed.

In the end I always end up voting with my feet. I feel this is probably the only course of action left open to yourself now.

Good Luck,

Bob.


Starting a new job next week. There is only four people in total who will be working in this part of the business. ( large multinational company )

The manager has assured me that due to the small workforce, an "us and them" approach would simply not be workable.