Thread: OHS GONE MAD

Well I am going to enter the fray now and I would think I am the most qualified person to comment. I was a building contractor 15 years ago I fell 3 meters on a building site breaking my back now confined to a wheelchair.So haveing said that I believe we are responsible for our own actions yes OHS Has gone mad if I was healed tomorrow and new what I do now I would tell OHS to rack off because there rules are totaly unpractical and unworkable
Cheers all Noel

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

I don't know what sort of industrial system you worked in but in my time as a fitter-machinist tradesmen were assumed to know how to do the job and worked without direct supervision. Labourers, TA's, apprentices worked under supervision. And particularly in the very militant shops, supervisors treaded carefully and minded their manners when speaking to tradesmen or the place would be "out on the grass".

Underground mining WA from 90's starting with WMC. 22 years all over Australia and some visits to Indonesia and China.

Saw the militant days when we had 3 panel shifts @ 7.5 hours. Family life and community was awesome. Then the unions were broken and 12 hour shifts and FIFO ruled supreme. The families, community and social fabric were torn to shreds. The big mining towns had their own workshops too, I knew a few fitters and they didn't take much crap. But when unions were beat and individual contracts took over, the big fellas with union reputations weren't kept on.

Before that, a couple years in civil construction.

Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

The picture I am getting here is that OHS is something that is put in place by control freaks that have neither money nor management skills.
.

I have meet a couple of those, yes. It's a bit like the old teacher gage but more fitting because teachers work.


You know the one, those who can do, those who cant do safety.

Originally Posted by Greatsouthernland

Underground mining WA from 90's starting with WMC. 22 years all over Australia and some visits to Indonesia and China.

Saw the militant days when we had 3 panel shifts @ 7.5 hours. Family life and community was awesome. Then the unions were broken and 12 hour shifts and FIFO ruled supreme. The families, community and social fabric were torn to shreds. The big mining towns had their own workshops too, I knew a few fitters and they didn't take much crap. But when unions were beat and individual contracts took over, the big fellas with union reputations weren't kept on.

Before that, a couple years in civil construction.

So those days were awesome wondering why they failed. The tail does not wag the dog.

Originally Posted by boa

So those days were awesome wondering why they failed. The tail does not wag the dog.

Just a theory, but the old dog had a grand plan to bust the unions and halve the wages. But the company the old dog ran found itself selling out to a group of bigger dogs and took a very generous departing payment through shares etc. also old dog had other interests in perks such as being on reserve bank board and retiring in style. The old plan was then upended due to ensuing mining boom and labour shortage.

New dogs and new plan, autonomous vehicles and economy of scale...

Just a theory.....

What I'm hearing here is that people would rather go back to the pre-WHS days because it was better.

I remember one day in the Emergency Department when a young apprentice fitter was brought in from the major breakfast cereal manufacturer's plant at Botany. He had to do some work on the inside of one of the ovens that was currently out of service. He went in to do the work knowing it wasn't in operation, there was no risk assessment and no SOP. While he was in there the oven next door completed the cooking cycle and as is the system the steam was recovered into the adjacent oven which would normally begin its cooking cycle. The oven cooked the apprentice he died in extreme agony.

The moral of the story was that it's O.K to cook your apprentices so long as they die of the injury and have no dependants because it did not attract compensation payment.

Is that the place you want to go?

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

The moral of the story was that it's O.K to cook your apprentices so long as they die of the injury and have no dependants because it did not attract compensation payment.

A friend worked in the Middle East doing maintenance of heavy oilfield machinery for many years. He swears that in the tribal areas of some countries it was best if the worker or pedestrian died of injuries. That was in'sh Allah, the will of God. If the person was incapacitated then under their tribal system their sheik was responsible for their care and considerable compensation was payable to the sheik (never to the injured party). Of interest to any EEO'ers out there is that compensation for an incapacitated woman was greater than for a similar age man. Apparently this is because a woman had greater value to the tribe. They did all the work.

Originally Posted by wildweels

Well I am going to enter the fray now and I would think I am the most qualified person to comment. I was a building contractor 15 years ago I fell 3 meters on a building site breaking my back now confined to a wheelchair.So haveing said that I believe we are responsible for our own actions yes OHS Has gone mad if I was healed tomorrow and new what I do now I would tell OHS to rack off because there rules are totaly unpractical and unworkable
Cheers all Noel

are you serious? Your type of incident is the reason for so many of the Ohse laws! Prior to these laws 10-15 years ago it was to often you heard of Injuries of your type or worse. The New bloke or apprentice or the experienced guy with a head cold and unknown ear infection causing balance issues Going for a tumble and ending up in casualty or the morgue.
Now it's far less and usually with the tag line, " no harness " or "scaffolding Fail/collapse" .
If there was the current harness and railings in place/On you 15 years ago would you have fallen?
The number of trades who have been injured and killed, just getting on with the job, without taking the eextra time to Isolate and bleed of the pressure is the reason for all the paperwork. Along with trades who whilst good at their job had NFI about The long term effects of the materials they where handling as to inform them and use the correct Gear would have cost money and slowed production.