Protective Footwear

viktory

A number of agencies specify that candidates must have their own safety shoes.

DVardysShadow

viktory wrote: »

*Sigh* Fair enough, suffer with broken toes or worse.

That'll teach those pesky employers.

I love that in today's society taking care of personal safety takes a backseat. Hey, you never know, you might be able to sue the employer for a few quid!!!

Don't be so daft.

What is required is to make the employer provide proper PPE, not put yourself at risk by doing the job without PPE.

viktory

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Don't be so daft.

What is required is to make the employer provide proper PPE, not put yourself at risk by doing the job without PPE.

Yes an employer should provide protective footwear - but they haven't and the OP's son has already suffered an injury. If it were my son I would care enough to go and buy him some safety shoes - then take it up with the employer.

Golden_Anemone

viktory wrote: »

If it were my son I would care enough to go and buy him some safety shoes - then take it up with the employer.

Viktory - how does your argument with another FM give you the right to insinuate that I don't care about my son. What a nasty thing to suggest.

I also made it clear that this isn't about compensation yet you suggest in another post that it is.

Thanks again Dvardysshadow.

Thorsoak, thank you. That is interesting - his employer is one of the 2 you mention - hopefully his H&S rep can put him right today.

viktory

Golden_Anemone wrote: »

Viktory - how does your argument with another FM give you the right to insinuate that I don't care about my son. What a nasty thing to suggest.

I also made it clear that this isn't about compensation yet you suggest in another post that it is.

Oh for heavens sake get over yourself. I said what I would do and I would go and get my child some suitable footwear. You don't think that is a solution then that is for your conscience - but please don't try and tell me that I am not allowed to say what I would do for fear of hurting your feelings.

dickydonkin

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Don't be so daft.

What is required is to make the employer provide proper PPE, not put yourself at risk by doing the job without PPE.

Absolutely.

An employer must inform their staff all of the hazards they may become exposed to during the course of their employment.

I used to do this at the induction stage and inform them what the hazards were, what the risks were and what the company was doing to reduce the risk of injury.

This would include risk asessments, safe systems of work and PPE (last resort) where other controls could not completely eliminate the risk of harm.

Training, monitoring and supervision were also part of the process of ensuring the employee was not placed an unneccesary risk.

An earlier poster mentioned an interesting point regarding the provision of PPE to agency workers.

It is indeed a fact that many agencies request that their 'contract of service' workers provide their own PPE, however, the agency's client has a duty of care to 'others not in their employment (HASWA sec 3)

"It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety"

We would provide all agency workers with appropriate training and PPE which I believe is the right thing to do as we would have control over the types, quality and condition of the equipment which is also very important as in the eyes of the law, the agency worker is entitled to exactly the same duty of care as an employee of the host business.

stef73

Before you buy your son his own boots just check he is allowed to use his own boots . I have worked in warehouses for over 20 years now and 2 places i worked for would not allow you to use your own boots you had to wear the ones they supplied (for insurance purposes i was told) . My current employer will let you pay the differance for more expensive boots from there suppliers catologue but i find arco trainer safety boots fine.

Golden_Anemone

Thanks Stef, I'm waiting to see what he finds out at work today.

Oh and it's fine, just because someone rude, domineering, argumentative and without any social skills tells me to do something I don't necessarily jump. I'll never be "mother of the year" clearly. :rotfl:

axomoxia

Give the HSE a call. Before someone gets killed.... I used to unload pallets of catalogues of the back of truck, nearly had a couple of them fall on me. You can only be lucky for so long.

dickydonkin

stef73 wrote: »

Before you buy your son his own boots just check he is allowed to use his own boots . I have worked in warehouses for over 20 years now and 2 places i worked for would not allow you to use your own boots you had to wear the ones they supplied (for insurance purposes i was told) . My current employer will let you pay the differance for more expensive boots from there suppliers catologue but i find arco trainer safety boots fine.

Arco do supply decent stuff - although sometimes not the cheapest, but like many other things, you only get what you pay for.

It is likely that insurers will require safety footwear to conform to EN345 for existing styles or the new conformity test ISO EN20345.

For warehouse work where there is potential for standing on broken pallets, try to obtain boots/shoes that have a metal plate between the rubber layers of the soles to prevent nail penetration, however, it is also important that the type of flooring and contaminations are compatable for the protective foowear you choose.