It's elf 'n safety gone mad I tell you

[kerching]

So, just got an email,from NICEIC selling stuff, saying how good they are, selling stuff, not saying why EC left under a cloud without working any notice or anything, selling stuff...

and they decided it would be good to ahow this shot of a contractor during lockdown teaching his daughter how to balance on a step ladder whilst using the ceiling as a support point

 

[ProDave]

Now you tell me that's not the way to do it.

At least she is not standing on the top plastic "no step" tread. You know, the one they make to look just like any other tread, other than the fact it is not strong enough to stand on.

 

[NozSpark]

Now you tell me that's not the way to do it.

At least she is not standing on the top plastic "no step" tread. You know, the one they make to look just like any other tread, other than the fact it is not strong enough to stand on.

I think that if they can take me, that they can take most people with ease

 

[binky]

where would we be without ladders of all shapes and sizes. I was talking to a plasterer the other day, who was saying hop-ups and those stilts they use are banned on sites now. 

 

[Phoenix]

Does anyone here know anyone who has suffered an incident of falling off a decent set of fibreglass steps? I don't know anyone even from multiple cases of them being used *ahem* not as the manufacturer intended!

 

[OnOff]

My ex governor couldn't be ar5ed getting the steps so stood on a Workmate on a first floor landing. Workmate collapsed and he fell onto the bannister around the landing breaking his ribs. Pity the c**t didn't go all the way over and break his neck.

Bitter, oh yes!

 

[ProDave]

I was using a borrowed "hop up" platform that collapsed on me.  That hurt but no serious damage.

I personally use a yonks old aluminium combination ladder.  Brilliant bit of kit, it's a stepladder, an offset step ladder for stairs and a short extension ladder.  It is well made and has never let me down of collapsed and very versatile.  But several other trades (mostly plumbers) have told me they are "dangerous" and "banned"

I think I will carry on using it.

 

[Andy™]

meanwhile, i couldnt be bothered getting the ladders off the roof rack....

I personally use a yonks old aluminium combination ladder.  Brilliant bit of kit, it's a stepladder, an offset step ladder for stairs and a short extension ladder.  It is well made and has never let me down of collapsed and very versatile.  But several other trades (mostly plumbers) have told me they are "dangerous" and "banned"

got a similar ladder. its probably the most used one

 

[UNG]

where would we be without ladders of all shapes and sizes. I was talking to a plasterer the other day, who was saying hop-ups and those stilts they use are banned on sites now. 

The banning access equipment that you can fall off has been happening for years since health and safety became a profession in it's own right.

How often do you go on site and the H&S bod has got some problem with the way you are working but hasn't got a clue about all the elements of the job you are doing

Takes me back to when I was rigging comms antennas on masts and buildings we started one job that involved work on probably 50 or 60 sites each with it's own SMS and RA the H&S guy over the project decided that due to it's size the project had to come under the CONDAM regs at the initial meeting he appointed himself as the principle contractor and informed everybody that all RA's had to be produced by someone with a recognised H&S qualification when it was pointed that none of the contractors working on the project had a suitable qualification he appointed himself to do all RA's this lasted for all of about 2 days when we turned up to a mast site to do a site survey everyone but him was kitting up to climb when someone asked him why he wasn't he told us he no climbing experience or qualification the response was as your the NEBOSH qualified person how do you intend to risk access the job in hand as per your requirements, the project documents were hastily altered and he left us to it while he went back to the office

 

[kerching]

I was doing a network install,at a large Window frame manufacturer......VERY LARGE

working in an occupied office, drilling walls for dado

H&S bloke comes in...."is that drill,110V.".?"

"no"

"well,change it or younare off site"

so,we,just carried on. Office is full of staff on 240V PCs

H&S god comes back seeing me using same drill...."right you, pack your kit you're off site NOW"

fair shout, packed my gear. He walked me down the corridor. MDs door was open and he saw me..."that was quick, have you finished?"

me...."sorry, no. I am being thrown off site for using a cordless drill "

:Hitsthefan:

same site wouldn't let let us use their MEWPs as we had no licence. In those days if you hired one in it wasn't needed as the onus was on the hire co to show you what to do. So,we used to hire them in. One day we asked him to get someone to move THEIR cherry picker so,we could get OUR cherry picker in. "Sorry, no one available. Can you move it yourself?"

he got slotted shortly afterwards and then they paid my time and the cost of the course to do the IPAF cert. he was a total bell end

 

[ProDave]

My favourite was I was up a ladder fitting an outside light at a care home.  Some guy in a high viz jacket who was nothing to do with me, started shouting at me something about why was I not wearing a hard hat?  When i pointed out to him that nothing was likely to fall on me UP here, but I might drop something onto him down there, he stormed off in a huff.

 

[Evans Electric]

Theres the steps I've used for the last  25 years  .  Obviously I don't do site work with full H&S  anymore  .    I was once challenged by a projects firm's H&S guy who wanted to see the BS Kite mark on the steps and how do I know they are safe to use .   

Answer because they are mine , I look after them , if they were dangerous I'd tip them into the skip ...........and by the way ,   how come your guys working on the 1st floor have no steps at all and are using some chairs they found . ?     He never bothered us again  . 

Oh he also asked how do we know its safe to mess the electrics here  ...... erm  because we are electricians . 

 

[kerching]

only accident I've had on steps was with these new fangled ones. The ones where the bottom tread is 2" above floor level 

 

[Phoenix]

I know one site thats got a blanket not ladders/steps policy. Its a waste processing site and apparently someone had an accident once that resulted in the policy where a ladder broke on them, but why did the ladder break? Well it was one they had found in the incomming waste and decided to use!

I had to get special permission from the site forman and have the ladder tag checked and proof of my attendance at a half day "working at height" course emailed through, so that I could go upto the second stop on my five tread steps in order to access the 600x600 fittings in the admin office ceiling....

 

[Geoff1946]

You get badly thought out rulings as knee jerk reactions to an incident. Company I worked at had large aerosols of a general purpose cleaning foam in the general stores.  They used butane propellant.

One day some clown sprayed his old CRT monitor screen and the static discharge ignited the gas in a big flash.

The only damage was to the guy's underpants, but the incident was investigated and the site safety manager imposed a site wide ban on all aerosols. 

In my particular area we used several electrical/electronic related products which in theory were now, "illegal". I think we just opted to keep them out of sight.

 

[Evans Electric]

I had to get special permission from the site forman and have the ladder tag checked and proof of my attendance at a half day "working at height" course emailed through, so that I could go upto the second stop on my five tread steps in order to access the 600x600 fittings in the admin office ceiling....

Good grief  !!!       Is it not taken a given  that if a Sparky turns up to  replace / repair an office light  , he  may possibly have  an inkling of how to use a pair of steps  without plunging to his doom  4ft below .

I have a risk assessment somewhere , will post if I can find it ,    where we had to describe what action we take when using a mobile aluminium  tower.    

Where it said " How do you avoid  falls from height  ?"   or whatever ...we put  " Be very careful"   .

I have to say that making someone fill in one of those , with some people  I think it helps to focus their mind to possible danger ...there is no situation really where an employee should be required to take risks .           On the other hand , after 50 years or more  it tends to become second nature.   

 

[Murdoch]

The main issue with H&S these days is that it’s removed the ability from most people under 45 to think for themselves ...

my risk assessment goes along the lines of, do I have the equipment to do the job properly? Do I know what I’m doing? And finally am I charging enough?

if any answer is no, then I won’t do the work

 

[ProDave]

My risk assessment is usually "Does what I am about to do frighten me?"  If it does, I don't do it.

In a previous employment I had to install and commission a control cabinet that we built in the USA.  God they  were strict.  Not allowed to use a normal test meter and touch terminals inside a live cabinet.  We had to isolate the cabinet, open the door, attach the probes, shut the door (shutting the test leads in the door) switch on, take a measurement, switch off, move the probes.......

That lasted until the man with the clipboard had witnessed 2 tests and left the room......

 

[Evans Electric]

Bloody hell!   When I was on  breakdowns  it was normal to open the cabinet , cheat the door lock mechanism  and switch back on  .     Then followed a mixture of poking test leads in all over the place ,  yanking out control fuses ,    pushing contactors in with  pencils etc  .   

 

[revjames]

you are not supposed to work on live equipment unless its 'reasonably practicable' thats what I was always told. In reality on a breakdown with production managers on your back, how are you supposed to fault find without doing 'live testing'. If you are not competent enough to open a panel up, turn it on and be able to avoid touching anything live whist looking for potential problems you probably shouldnt be working with screwdrivers.....