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health and safety???
anyone know anything about healt an safety?? cos my accident claim is doing my head in now....they`re saying the tool that was used was safely repaired and its normal practise to use a steel tube on a broken handle of the cutters
what they should look like
and the pair that shattered my thumb
lol that cant be right, is it taped on?
problem is before you used the tool you should have made a visual inspection and noticed that they were unsafe to use as they had been modified
yup.........they taped it on AFTER the accident the ******* thing was loose when it happened but i can`t prove it but i don`t think they should be repaired at all in h+s terms
they`ve always been like that since i started and they know about em they`ve been complained about and i was new @ the place,not @ the job been doin that for yrs but that was the only tool they gave me to do the job
looks dodgey but i dont know anythin about that sort of thing, surely u must have a case, surely broken tools shud be replaced anyway an not just semi repaired.
I know where we work we all have training records and are signed off for what we know how to and do it properly. The slightest mis wording of something can void a claim as a friend found out, she said she was twisting, we all knew what she meant but it wasn't correct procedure so she couldn't claim.
Your work will probably be saying what mine would be and that's you shouldn't of used it if it was unsafe as you have been shown how to use in the correct manner.
well the solicitors are doin em for not providing adequate tooling and not keeping it maintained
Ok don,t quote me as gospel but I do have a NEBOSH in H&S and have been a Health, Safety and Environmental advisor.
Before ANY operation within a company a Risk Assesment should be performed to identify the risks and how to overcome them for example a machine operator may get swarf in his eye so the RA would identify the risks and then the precautions to be taken to eliminate them. In this case the machine would have a guard and you would wear specs. However if you removed either the guard or the specs and you were blinded you would be at fault as the precautions were in place and under the Health and Safety at Work Act you have an obligation as does the company to ensure your own safety.
PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) states that all hand tools and power tools must be maintained and that the operator must have been shown how to use them and a training record should be held by the company to ensure that all of its staff are trained and have knowledge of how to operate or use the tools provided. For example if you did an apprenticeship in fabrication the company would assume you had a good knowledge of tools and how to use them but if they gave you a tool to use that was not maintained or you did not know how to use they would be at fault. Under PUWER the employee has no responsability for the equipment
If you were given this tool to use you should have complained and said you would not use it. In an ideal world we would do this but when push comes to shove you just get on with it.
From a purely H&S point of view you are both wrong as you did not speak up (Unless you are deemed untrained by the company to check the equipment before use) and they provided you with broken equipment. Check their PUWER record and see if that tool has been listed and recorded as being repaired if not you could state that you believed that they had complied to the PUWER and it had been inspected by a competent person and that it was suitable for use.
As with all H&S issues there are many loose ends and it gets very complicated. I broke my back and basically it had to be pinned and took me a good couple of years to get right but because I have done years of weights and martial arts they used it and said my back could have been knackered anyway. That alone took my claim from tens of thousands to thousands
Good luck I know exactly what it is like and after 2 years I just settled becasue it had started to consume my life and I was hell bent on getting what I could from them, in the end my health and r-ship was worth more then those ****ers would ever give me
As above, a Risk Assessment needs to be completed
The requirements vary depending on due diligence
If equipment is being used then it MUST be inspected at regular intervals, by someone trained in its normal use
If equipment is to be used then the operator MUST be trained BEFORE its use, AND sign that they have been trained in its safe use
As you can see there is great room here for interpretation, as some equipment could be deemed to need inspecting daily with training at six monthly intervals, others to be inspected monthly with training at three yearly intervals
However, the manufacturer usually has guidelines for this
Equally, your solicitor should know this...
Personally, a tool in that condition should have been reported
If asked to use it, then refuse (and stand your ground)
I have even aborted jobs due to unsafe equipment, even though several other people on that job were not affected by that unsafe equipment
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