A recent survey of small businesses by the HSE found that many were going to ridiculous lengths to comply with health and safety — one business had written guidelines for walking upstairs. Another had written out risk assessments for everything, including use with a tape measure.
One in five of those surveyed believed that they were not capable of managing health and safety themselves and needed to hire a specialist consultant. 11 per cent believed that a qualified electrician needed to test appliances such as kettles and toasters every year, which according to the HSE, is a persistent myth.
What ridiculous health and safety measures have you come across?
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I once visited a showhome on a site still under construction where the sales advisor had had to contract someone to come in and change a light bulb as the construction site manager had banned all ladders from site for health and safety reasons.
After 17 years as a safety professional I am at the end of my tether with people that believe safety is all about petty rules. The old adage of ‘a little knowledge is dangerous’ is so true, When someone goes on a NEBOSH certificate or IOSH managing safety and then think that is it and they know it all regarding implementing safety regulations, sorry but you have only scratched the surface. Worse still is the lawyers that insist companies put stupid rules in place to avoid litigation. Mind you I have had a good career and made quite a bit of money sorting these problems out for others so perhaps I dont really mind.
I used to regularly take down the posters on the stairs instructing people to hold the handrail in the interests of health safety. They were put up by the “Facilities department” in the same organisation that I was the Health and Safety manager. It was like a battle of attrition.
We can write many rules, procedures and guidelines; and provide a lot of training. However, we must also focus on their development and implementatioin; and the workplace cliamate that encourages learners to apply the knowledge (presuming that they are relevant and practicable) they acquired. Without the latter we are just creating an archive.
I think THIS initiative qualifies as unnecessary! There will be always be some silliness, though much that is reported is untrue, excuses and apocryphal.
Many authorities, including Professor Paul Almond have criticised the HSE for going down the route of challenging these stories as ‘myths’ as counter productive and undermining of H&S. The truth is that work causes far more harm than is publicised and we should be focusing on good H&S regulation and enforcement as civilised response to stop people being hurt, made ill or killed and stop this utter nonsense. Sad to see SHP involved in this tabloidification of what is after all a matter of life, death and health. Employers organisations I am sure are grateful for the diversion.
Tell the families of the 2 building workers killed and the 1 seriously injured in 1 week in London. That Health and Safety isn’t neccessary or the 3500 Building workers sacked and Blacklisted for raising questions of Safety on sites. From Asbestos which kills over 2000
Workers a year mainly in Construction every year in this country alone, tell their families that it’s over the top! If people believe Sun like articles ask yourself why employers make up this crap to belittle safety!
Hi Hilda, we felt that the research did a fairly good job of highlighting the fact that many small businesses do not have the resources for health and safety, and misinformation has been spread around as a result. Surely highlighting it is better than nothing? We’d like to hear your thoughts on this.
Hi shponline, Thanks for this but I really feel you have naively contributed to bolstering the ‘elf and safety’s gorn mad’ lobby which has become accepted fact without a shred of evidence and despite a massive weight of research findings to the contrary. When Cameron Minshull, 16 was killed in an engineering firm in Jan 2013, by unguarded lathe while on government approved apprenticeship, was that due to too much regulation and enforcement, or petty rules, silly signs, stupid excessive advice? No,it was due to far too little regulation and enforcement and this initiative of yours bolsters employers to think they do not need to care, do not need to comply and puts workers safety, and their health at great risk. Silly rules benefit no-one but rarely/never kill injure or make anyone ill and can be challenged in adult sensible ways, NOT by threatening the whole system of H&S regulation and enforcement as is currently happening. It’s like giving credence to conversations in saloon bars, with all the bores outdoing each other with their silly, probably mostly apocryphal stories ‘and another thing’ ! It’s frankly puerile and pointless, and would be risible if not so seriously undermining of HSE and H&S. Why not talk about the real risk of harm at work and its cost and who pays that cost? And use the realistic figures not the falsely presented as total HSE only ‘148’ killed at work last year which is less than a fraction of the total massive toll. http://www.gmhazards.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/GMHC-stats-Hazards-2012-13-national.doc Ask who benefits from a all of this, not ordinary people, or SME employers possibly eager for help to do right thing. As a professional OSH organisation I think it behoves you to speak truth to power, to not go along with the lies, stand up for workers health, safety and lives, and for to challenge government decisions, such as to slash HSE Infoline, arguably a lifeline for SMEs.
Hi Hilda, thanks again for your thoughts. Just to clarify, this is HSE research. Broadly, we agree with your points – health and safety is a crucial part of our working lives, and is given a bad rap by both government and the mainstream media. But we do feel that misinformation spread by well-meaning employers can also contribute to that bad rap, which is why we published this. Sorry that this message has not been clear. If there’s anything that you think we should do to further support the sector, please do let us know.
To clarify my views, legislation, rules and standards are very important but it is the petty, nonsensical and in some cases stupid safety nanny rules that are implemented by people misunderstanding and having misguided (but good of course) intentions. Re. Marks comment about posters on stairs (I have even seen a stair monitor who was counting how many did or did not hold the handrail). It is these issues that make a mockery of H&S efforts and detract from the real issues as mentioned by others in this forum.
This forum was originally about small businesses going to ridicules and completely misguided lengths to comply with H&S. Well, believe it or not, the big businesses are just as bad. Why is this you may ask? Well, referring back to my earlier comment regarding NEBOSH and IOSH training. I have witnessed managers who do the IOSH managing safety and think that is the ultimate level of training in H&S. And you may recall a business guru (and Cameron supporter) slagging off safety professionals as having limited training that was not comparable to other professional callings (e.g. the legal profession (no snide comments please)). Sadly the truth is there are some so safety professionals that don’t have adequate training or have not developed their understanding and competence with their experience. I believe that this is due to the massive upsurge over the past few years for safety to oversee every aspect (misguidedly) of work. This has created an opportunity for a lot of people to jump on the bandwagon without the right training, experience and (dare I say it?) common sense for a profession that is supposed to support and advise management on the best way to communicate and implement H&S legislation and guidance to assure risks to their employees and others affected by their undertakings are ALARP.
So the crux of the matter is that there are lots of people in decision making positions that really don’t understand how to implement or advise on how to implement H&S standards to be regulatory compliant. And you will always get those that believe that H&S compliance wastes money and should be ignored.
My opinion is that we have to educate the ignorant, improve the understanding of those that are misguided and sort out the blatant and antagonistic anti compliance brigade (pity they banned capital punishment). This is the lot of the safety professional.
How can anybody think that HSE setting up a site to rubbish ‘elf and safety’ myths is counterproductive? If you don’t challenge and expose these myths for the pathetic tosh they are how can people begin to understand the problem?
p.s. regarding holding handrails on stairs, I was just at a team building session and the venue did not have handrails on a substantial flight of stairs leading to a patio area, can anyone advise if I should ban the use of this venue for corporate functions? Sorry I should have asked if I should advise my management to implement the ban.
What hazards can possibly be faced when using a tape measure! Bizzare! Talk about trivial risk or what
I understand exactly why small businesses have difficulties understanding how to deal with health and safety legislation. They do not necessarily have the spare capacity to employ an in-house specialist and to still stay competitive. (Yes, sorry to enlighten you but it’s true: despite all the bull, safety has a cost). Yet companies are continually bombarded with warnings of potential dangers and threats of dire consequences so, often they hire someone.
The latest edition of SHP carried an article on the risk of musculoskeletal damage to laboratory workers; another set of researchers creating another possibility for a “specialist in the field” or a newly discovered illness amongst staff. Luckily, my copy of SHP arrived yesterday and not today – otherwise I might have taken it for an April Fool’s joke.
Since someone else has quoted their experience as a bolster to their argument, I feel I can explain that I have been involved in H&S since 1975. Since then, it has become increasingly overloaded with self-serving, childish, over-exaggeration, including much of it from the safety bodies like IOSH and RoSPA themselves. It is an industry making lots of money. I cannot believe the sensible people who wrote the Robens report that led to HSWA, could possibly have envisaged the extent of its misuse!
The Myth Buster panel (the aim of which I truly support, to answer complaints about the misuse of ‘Health & Safety’ being used as an excuse,) frequently suggests that certain issues should not have been referred to as H&S. However, in many cases, it is obvious that it one of those (many) regulations that has led to the interpretation of risk and the setting of a rule. So, some decisions, made by small companies under pressure, are understandable, however ridiculous they may seem to us “professionals.”
In my opinion, health & safety needs to take another big step backwards from its attempts in the 1980’s to micro-manage safety.
Paul, we had a worker stopped from using a tape measure WITHOUT gloves by our client on a walkabout.
I can see how a damaged tape may present a very slight risk of causing a cut but, I am certainly not rushing to create our first risk assessment for using a tape measure, my manager would have a fit…..!
In this day of litigation for all, it is no wonder some small businesses feel the need to protect everything in cotton wool for fear of being sued due to a cut from a tape measure. However and this is what galls me, I have an employer who stated ” if health and safety is a full time job we are spending too much time on it”. Well I am sorry but the old saying of familiarity breeds contempt springs to mind and too many times we see someone cutting corners that could lead to injury or damage. I do agree that we don’t need risk assessments for every single thing, what we do need is to breed a culture of everyone taking care of themselves and others, and in this case dispose of the tape measure when damaged and get a new one, not tape over the crack to ” make do”.