Feedback on serious breach of health & safety - charge & allowance?

fedster

How anyone can say, standing on Forks is a bit of fun, or generally messing about with a Forklift truck is a laugh is beyond me, are you seriously trying to get yourself killed? Does your life mean that little to you?

newwave19

Personally the way i would approach it is, the next time the boss says about lifting him up, tell him not a problem, and just go to get the cage, if he says no to that, and just to lift him straight up, meantion about hearing about the HSE giving out hefty fines for breaches of this type, if he still says he doesn't care, tell him that you are no longer going to breach this H&S regulation, and bring the matter to your trade union

sometimes the informal route is the better option.

ILW

fedster wrote: »

How anyone can say, standing on Forks is a bit of fun, or generally messing about with a Forklift truck is a laugh is beyond me, are you seriously trying to get yourself killed? Does your life mean that little to you?

I also used to do a bit of amateur motorcycle racing, so possibly.

saintjammyswine

ILW wrote: »

I also used to do a bit of amateur motorcycle racing, so possibly.

But not a sidecar passenger so not a complete nutter!

ILW

saintjammyswine wrote: »

But not a sidecar passenger so not a complete nutter!

That really would scare the **** out of me.

bleenoth

Company owner wanted me to lift him up on the forks to replace some strip lights that stopped working in the warehouse. When I mentioned that I didn't really want responsibility if any accidents occurred, he agreed.

Since that day, any lights which needed seeing to always got mysteriously fixed between going home for the weekend, and coming in Monday, when I FULLY suspect he used to bring his wife into work on a Sunday to operate the forklift levers!!

Maybe suggest the same? !

LondonDiva

newwave19 wrote: »

Personally the way i would approach it is, the next time the boss says about lifting him up, tell him not a problem, and just go to get the cage, if he says no to that, and just to lift him straight up, meantion about hearing about the HSE giving out hefty fines for breaches of this type, if he still says he doesn't care, tell him that you are no longer going to breach this H&S regulation, and bring the matter to your trade union

sometimes the informal route is the better option.

I would do this, then follow up with an email or something setting out your reasons for refusal either to your union rep or to the boss, so that you have a record of this if needed in the future.

scooby088

OP contact HSE anonymously immediately, you are responsible to yourself and colleagues think worst case scenario and accidents do happen. Also refuse to stand on the forks of a fork lift too, after all you are being health and safety aware.

BarrelScraper

Thanks for the replies guys.

Some of you clearly work for reasonable people. If i said that to my boss, i would get told to do as i'm told & stop wasting time.

See, my boss thinks because he pays our wages that he OWNS us.
I remember one time a set of people were going to end up finishing really late & one manager said to the boss that these people do have lives outside of work you know.
Boss turns round & says - not until i say so.


I'm on a final warning, so i really don't want to step out of line. I think my best course of action is to take it to the company & get it in writing that i will or will not receive a warning for refusing this instruction. If they sign to say that they will warn me if i refuse, then i will also request they sign to say any accidents as a result are the full responsibility of the company & not myself as i have raised my concern.

Don't know whether that would wash in a court though.

Plus, don't know what i'd do if work refused to sign to say either way.

dickydonkin wrote: »

In respect of lifting people onto trailers, our warehouse guys did this quite often. Being the safety killjoy that I am - I stopped this unsafe practice and implemented a system where if a driver needed to be raised onto the back of a trailer, a safety cage must be attached to the forks - the cage was located near the loading bays and took a few seconds to attach and secure.

I'm with you on this.
People say i'm too H&S conscious, but ATEOTD i would rather be H&S conscious than end up injured or killed. If others want to do that then that's their business, but i don't want to be a part of it.

We do have a cage, but it's kept out of the way & a good bit away from where the boss usually asks to be lifted. I know for sure he would complain if i said i was just going to get the cage, because as he likes to point out - everything just takes "2 minutes", it'll only take 2 minutes, everything is just 2 minutes. Why haven't you done that [5 hour] job? It should've only taken you 2 minutes.

I also reckon a fork truck driver would be looking for a new job as his employer will certainly pass the buck onto him for ignoring his FLT training requirements.

Even if it was the employer giving the instructing?

dickydonkin

BarrelScraper wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys.

Some of you clearly work for reasonable people. If i said that to my boss, i would get told to do as i'm told & stop wasting time.

See, my boss thinks because he pays our wages that he OWNS us.
I remember one time a set of people were going to end up finishing really late & one manager said to the boss that these people do have lives outside of work you know.
Boss turns round & says - not until i say so.


I'm on a final warning, so i really don't want to step out of line. I think my best course of action is to take it to the company & get it in writing that i will or will not receive a warning for refusing this instruction. If they sign to say that they will warn me if i refuse, then i will also request they sign to say any accidents as a result are the full responsibility of the company & not myself as i have raised my concern.

Don't know whether that would wash in a court though.

Plus, don't know what i'd do if work refused to sign to say either way. I'm with you on this.
People say i'm too H&S conscious, but ATEOTD i would rather be H&S conscious than end up injured or killed. If others want to do that then that's their business, but i don't want to be a part of it.

We do have a cage, but it's kept out of the way & a good bit away from where the boss usually asks to be lifted. I know for sure he would complain if i said i was just going to get the cage, because as he likes to point out - everything just takes "2 minutes", it'll only take 2 minutes, everything is just 2 minutes. Why haven't you done that [5 hour] job? It should've only taken you 2 minutes.



Even if it was the employer giving the instructing?

Ask your boss what would happen to you if he fell off the forks when he was on them - assuming he survived the fall.

Your boss seems to be a clown, but even he won't be so stupid as to put something in writing that would exhonorate any member of staff who breached safety legislation - and you and your employer would certainly be breaching them - moreso as you are both certainly aware of what you are doing is wrong.

I could itemise the breaches - but I won't for the sake of prolonging the post - but trust me - there are breaches.

Out of curiosity, are all your fork truck drivers properly trained with RTITB accreditation? The reason I ask that if the worst did happen and an accident did occur, if no training had been carried out then the s**t would really hit the fan.

If you have been trained, then I am 100% certain that using the forks as a means of access is downright dangerous would have been instilled into the drivers that they just don't do it.

It seems the employer has a total disregard for the safety of his employees, the safety of himself and the integrity of his company - injuring your workers is bad for business.

I would worry about your previous disciplinary record as it might be so easy to justify your dismissal on 'other grounds'.

It seems that you are getting nowhere with your employer - so I would (reluctantly) suggest that you contact the HSE highlighting your concerns.

Workplace transport is a very topical subject with the HSE and I suspect they would 'visit' your workplace for an inspection and as I alluded to earlier, if 'material breaches' are discovered, your employer will have to cover the cost of the inspection and the HSE's advice on rectifying the problems.

It's a difficult one for you - but only you and your conscience can decide what course of action to take next.