Health and safety is getting ridiculous now.

Unintentional

I've been meaning to moan about this for a while now. But about a month ago. We got told that we can't assemble items for customers in store since we're not experts and if the customer has a accident we're liable!

Fair enough for some items. But it's for absolutely EVERYTHING. Take pushchairs for example. All they need is 2 wheels being pushed into place, you don't need to be an expert to do that! I think it's bad customer service saying to customers 'You need to put 2 wheels on this, but I'm not doing it because I'm not allowed' then you have to watch them struggle to put the wheels on whilst supervising their children. I still do it anyway because it's pointless.

So it seems you can't do anything now without being threatened with court action incase someone has an accident. What is our country becoming when you can't help someone out?

vyle

I blame the idiots who try it on for compo at the drop of a hat (even if they dropped their own).

I've had to stop doing myriad things for customers for the same reason. I can't recommend tv installers, suggest other shops that can sell something they might need and many more, because somebody MIGHT try and sue. Even if they're not successful, the potential costs and bad publicity aren't worth the risk.

Wee_Pilsbury

I'd have to agree with you - it's all too much now.

I think though that many employers (for example) over-react because they fear the old Health & Safety gone mad thing more than they should - we only tend to hear about the most extreme examples in the news and even then, many of them appear to be bourne of the same thing - fearing things are worse than they really are. Bit of a vicious circle IYSWIM.

Annoying nontheless though !

lynzpower

yes this is nothing to do with health and safety as a profession, I think they have seen a couple of cases on tv an thought- how do we avoid getting sued.

there are thousands of things that are supposed to be "Health and safety" but its usually jittery management who do this.

If a parent bought a pushchair and asked you to fit the wheel (even signing a very basic disclaimer) and the wheel fell off and damaged someone I doubt it would get anywhere near court anyway!

I would be interested to see any court cases like this, if anyone has links to any... ?

geordieracer

The amount of threads on here that are just wanting the best way to get some compo for the smallest thing shows that people cannot be trusted anymore so companies shy away from anything that could make them liable.

its a shocking state of affairs to get ourselves into and one that we probably cant escape nowadays

paddyrg

I also blame the 'free money' compo chasers - one shop in a chain gets sued (successfully or not) by a chaser claiming their princess was *nearly* thrown under a bus because of the loose wheel, the shop chain will just close ranks and say 'well, that's one more thing we're not risking'. Tragedy of the commons, greedy f's spoiling it for the rest of us.

Nilrem

It's not H&S usually...it's more often down to the insurance company liabilities, and the interpretation by management who don't want the bad publicity if anything does ever go wrong (even if it's not the fault of the store/employee).

H&S offers best practice to prevent and deal with risks to people and the environment.
Insurance companies deal with the best way to reduce their liabilities...

One is based on the dangers to people, the other to dangers to their profits, with the insurance company looking at well beyond the H&S requirements.

So H&S may have nothing to say about doing something like putting up a pushchair other than generic advice "follow the instructions, and double check any fastenings", whilst the insurance company might say "we won't cover you, as we can't prove that you followed the instructions every time, and even if we could it would cost too much".
Of course that comes down to "it's a health and safety issue" when it's presented to staff/the public.

Ultimately it's down to the "I stubbed my toe, how much can I claim" brigade, and the fact that it often costs far more to fight a "no win, no fee" case than it does to make a payout without admitting liability (something many such companies know, and will deliberately set their claim level at below the point at which the insurance company is likely to fight).

pmduk

The problem is more that health and safety is being used as an excuse for everything now. If a store wants to reduce customer service in an area they'll trot out the excuse of health and safety, without ever being able to justify the health and safety grounds behind the decision

hcb42

last week I was staying somewhere and wanted hot water for a hot water bottle. I said I would do this myself (boil water and pour it in) so as not to inconvenience proprietor. She said I couldnt for "Health and Safety". I replied that I was a seasoned hotelier and could operate a kettle . Some management do clearly just make this stuff up - I am pretty sure no insurance company has spoken out on this particular issue!

hawkwinddotcom

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/