It depends if anyone acts on the information now that they have it. Otherwise your friend and his team are another waste of money, sadly.
I own my own business with a large work force. I'm talking about the bullshit policies which say I have to pay people created by the government to come round to my business and tell me that the guy who's been driving the fork lift for 40 years isn't allowed to any more until he goes on a training course (at my expense) so that person created by government (paid for by me) can put a tick in a box. I also have three separate people (again paid by me) who come round and each waste a days productivity (at my expense), one from trading standards, one from an assurance scheme and one from an audit company. All government run, all ask me the same questions, look through the same paperwork, put the same ticks in the same boxes when just one is needed (or rather not needed as most of the questions are demeaning and patronising and are just common sense). This doesn't add any value to my business at all, it just costs me money and wastes my time. Oh but it does create jobs and lines the treasuries pocket!
The Prime Minister recently announced that he intends to reduce red tape. (Every government for the past 30 years has made exactly the same announcement, by the way) But what does "red tape" mean? It is a special code word used in political circles. "Reducing red tape" means reducing employment protections for employees, reducing tenancy protections for tenants, reducing consumer protections for buyers, and reducing protections for everyone against unfair discrimination. It's just a traditional bit of spin deployed in the run up to elections.
And this is the same PM who siad he would simplify the tax system.......................................................Still waiting!
Red tape means the hoops you have to jump through before you can get on with what you're supposed to be getting on with in the first place. Fair enough some rules and legislation are for the good if it protects people but most isn't, it's jobs simply that have been dreamt up to burden industry with unnecessary regulations, all of which need detailed records to be kept so that someone can come round and tick a box. In my business legislation related paperwork has become so bad it is almost a full time job for someone. The government say they are cutting back on 'red tape' but we have found this is making our business situation worse as the people with nonsense jobs know their heads are on the block and are 'nit picking' over every little detail inorder to justify their existence and protect their jobs.
The problem with health and safety is that it knows no boundaries and will expand into every available space. The same is true of any organisation that isn't regulated by the market place.
The best H&S one that happened 'to me' was work being done on my property and a scaffold was needed roadside so access could got at the chimney stack....... ........the scaffolder has his sign board up, so the 'inspector' knew it wasn't a 'private' job.........and the tit turned up on the day they were dismantling the scaffold.......... ..........he told them if they didn't have safety straps on the handrails, he would report them (apparently they have to be lashed above the level of the worker).............He was that thick he couldn't understand they were removing the handrails and that there were no parts of the scaffold structure above the scaffolders.
We all know that health and safety was invented to provide worthwhile employment for those people who had no friends at school.
And also to cut down on the needless death that occurred in many industries like building too but has gone a bit OTT in many areas perhaps due to our litigious society and the need of our poor legal representatives who can't possibly scrap through life on their small remunerations.
There doesn't seem to be any line between a health and safety issue and common sense. A friend of mine worked at Heinz and they had 'Warning contains hot water' stickers on all the kettles so they as a company were covered legally if someone scalded themselves.
It is almost impossible to argue against health and safety without coming across a a bit of a dinosaur in todays workplace. Nobody wants to injure themselves or others and the tools that are available, various forms of risk assessment, make perfect sense but when they are elevated to the status of religious text to be held in higher regard than the job itself it all becomes a bit tedious. Knowledge and experience are being replaced by slavish obedience to the paperwork.
I haven't opened my toolbag for two whole days now, thanks to H&S. Two days of productivity lost due to paperwork and bloody-mindedness, just cos companies are so shit scared of being sued. Do you really think it's for our welfare..? Is it fuck.
The industry I joined 38 years ago is a much safer place today than it was then, absolutely no doubt about it, and I would not like to return to those days. The problem with HSS&E is that the pendulum has swung too far, but try telling someone that safety is not a primary comncern and you will be rightly condemned for it, but having said that I know exactly what you mean.
About a year ago the head of the HSE was interviewed on the box and he was saying that he was getting fed up with H&S being over used and that some of the decisions made in the name of H&S were giving his organisation a bad name. Not heard that argument made since, I suppose someone decided that it was not a safe opinion to be quoting!
The government end up paying much more for things than they are worth. Working in the NHS, official procurement catalogs show you how much things cost. So you will end up paying stupid amounts like £50 for a no-parking sign, that could be bought at retail for £15, or surely sourced in bulk for £5-10. It's the same with everything from sellotape to bridges.
Very true. WTF? Did you read what you typed there, John? Organisations are regulated by the market place in the same way that wolves used to be regulated by sheep. The choice we are faced with is between public services, who have self-interest at the core of of their raison d'etre, vs the private sector, whose first concern is the customer ... bwahahaha, just kidding ... their first and only concern is the fastest buck for the least outlay, for the benefit of company directors and shareholders. Period. Anyone else here sick of those two choices?
Yes, I thought the idea that the marketplace self regulates is a bit quaint. Does that mean that you should just let utility companies put up their prices until homes start getting water from a standpipe, or using candles in the evening? Non-marketplace organisations exist to give the people who own them (taxpayers) more of what they want (like security and healthcare). Maybe these organisations should have things like boards of non-executive directors from business to ensure that they work efficiently, or just that they remain open to novel ideas and thinking.
Don't you suspect that some of the sign-makers, or people responsible for putting up signs, may actually have a sense of humour and make these signs deliberately as a wind-up for their own amusement? If I was in a job like that, I'd be very tempted.
