So.. there’s a drive through coffee place in Geelong that I’ve been to a few times. Every time I get a coffee there it always comes with a straw..

Last time I went there I told the girl that I don’t want a straw.. Her reply was “We have to give you a straw for OH&S reasons but you can throw it in the bin as you drive out.”

I guess they are just covering their arses in case I get flustered whist taking a sip, miss my mouth, spill hot coffee all over myself and crash into a school bus.. Although, poking myself in the eye with the straw is just as likely and the consequences could be just as catastrophic..

What is the world coming to?

Your not alone. There are OH&S videos on how to operate a box cutter, I kid you not!!!!

Really, I'm surprised that you can be served a hot beverage in a motor vehicle at all. With all the carry on about mobile phone use, it seams a little daft.

I hope someone pokes themselves in the eye with their straw and sues them..

If you manage to poke yourself in the eye with a drinking straw you probably shouldn't be operating any form of machinery in public.

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Chris6791 said..
If you manage to poke yourself in the eye with a drinking straw you probably shouldn't be operating any form of machinery in public.

What if I someone happens to jam the straw up my their nose as a result of being distracted by a PYT in a barely there mini skirt, and I they drop a wheel into a pothole?

stephen

Are you telling me you can't drive, perve and drink a coffee without risk of stuffing it up? You sir need to hand your license in!

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dan111984 said..
Although, poking myself in the eye with the straw is just as likely and the consequences could be just as catastrophic.

My theory is that our safety culture and systems is so well prioritised and oiled now days, there are lots of WHS specialists in our work places bored ****less and busting for an incident to occur where they can spring into action and justify their existence. The result is dramas getting created out of nothing like Dan's example.

I look after a piece of plant equipment at work, and during an audit, a WHS guy reported that a lot of birds were ****ting on it and was causing a biological hazard to the handful of people that used it. After I confirmed that it wasn't a joke, I argued that our employee car park has the same birds ****ting on the cars, and the exposure rate was to hundreds of members multiple times a day, as opposed to the handful of members who used my equipment sparingly. This counter argument saved me wasting my time on something that could not be fixed because some idiot had to make something up.

I recently spent $550 so i could putup road signs and hold a lollypop for a bike race . when the paper work arrived by email for the event it was a massive document of 50 pages that couldnt be broken up for printing. I had t contact the sender and ask for a printed copy to be prepared as i had no printer available........
when i picked the wad of paper up, on the day , I pulled out the second last page with the signage plan and left the rest in the vehicle. i only needed 1 page of the 50 as it was all policiies and what ifs. when it came to setting out the plan it was completely wrong and i had to alter all the measurements and placing locations anyway

As stupid as it is your arse is covered if you follow the (wrong) plan provided.

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spill hot coffee all over myself...

it is ridiculous about the straw issue as i find it more dangerous as the hot coffee is more focused coming through a straw rather than sipping it .

A few years back on the Fremantle wharf i heard a story about hot soup. Apparently a driver got burnt whilst driving with hot soup and the Union complained to the company. The company told the Shop they could no longer sell hot soup and the union then called a stop work meeting to take a vote on if the company could tell the shop they couldn't sell hot soup. They ended up taking the rest of the day off

I got the story from a worker onsite..

Oh and for the record i really don't mind the straw, i just wished the biscuit was bigger

I also once had a customer come in who had been flown down from the Mining company to complete a updated Cordless drill coarse and a fire extinguisher coarse. He was a registered electrician..

Insurance - the white man's burden.

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jbshack said..
A few years back on the Fremantle wharf i heard a story about hot soup. Apparently a driver got burnt whilst driving with hot soup and the Union complained to the company. The company told the Shop they could no longer sell hot soup and the union then called a stop work meeting to take a vote on if the company could tell the shop they couldn't sell hot soup. They ended up taking the rest of the day off

Yeah I remember hearing that on a "what is the world coming too ?" type of news feed discussion on the radio. I thought it must have been a joke, but obviously not.

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jn1 said..
I thought it must have been a joke, but obviously not.

We had a classic at the Orchard Hotel [Perth] as it neared completion in 1985.

Early one morning a chippie nicked his thumb with a chisel while installing a door hinge, did the right thing - went and had it cleaned and a band-aid applied by the first aid bloke.

NEK MINNIT.....stop work - all off site for the day

Reason - the first aid bloke didn't have a fully equipped first aid box.

We figured the BLF were dragging the job out as long as possible, as there was very little work going in Perth at the time - until Alan Bond's Tower started construction.


stephen

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sn said..

jn1 said..
I thought it must have been a joke, but obviously not.

We had a classic at the Orchard Hotel [Perth] as it neared completion in 1985.

Early one morning a chippie nicked his thumb with a chisel while installing a door hinge, did the right thing - went and had it cleaned and a band-aid applied by the first aid bloke.

NEK MINNIT.....stop work - all off site for the day

Reason - the first aid bloke didn't have a fully equipped first aid box.

We figured the BLF were dragging the job out as long as possible, as there was very little work going in Perth at the time - until Alan Bond's Tower started construction.


stephen

what he had run out of duct tape !!!! shame shame shame ................

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SandS said..
what he had run out of duct tape !!!! shame shame shame ................

yep - one band-aid missing from the first aid box, so it was no longer fully equipped....

stephen

How's this, in 2012 I was refused a refill in my travel mug at a cafe which had no problem before, was told I had to have a take away cup but feel free to transfer it, which I did because the travel mug was safe and I was driving a truck.

The reason given was a change of law based on hygiene.

Butt crack inspections in the pipeline!

I used to have a small manufacturing business. One of my machinists admitted to a drug problem. If I continued to let him run the machine and there was an accident I became liable.
Legal advise was that because he admitted it I could be liable under the unfair dismissal laws if I fired him. I had to pay him top wages for several months to do very menial tasks. Fortunately he resigned.
Fixed the problem, I don't employ anyone any more.

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bazell said..
I used to have a small manufacturing business. One of my machinists admitted to a drug problem. If I continued to let him run the machine and there was an accident I became liable.
Legal advise was that because he admitted it I could be liable under the unfair dismissal laws if I fired him. I had to pay him top wages for several months to do very menial tasks. Fortunately he resigned.
Fixed the problem, I don't employ anyone any more.

Why not d&a test prior to start of shift and suspend without pay if he wasn't fit?

Driving tired is apparently equivalent to driving with a blood alcohol content, ie- you're basically driving drunk.

How long do you think it'll be before we're getting tested and fined for driving tired.

And further to that, if being tired means that you're effectively drunk; how long till we're getting tested and sacked for rocking up to work tired?

You're not allowed to turn up drunk for work, but being tired is the same thing, according to the road safety mob.

It's hard to systematically test for fatigue, unlike a breath/blood/urine test for drugs and alcohol which is quite easy.

Perhaps you underestimate the propensity of those in power to come up with new ways to f#ck us over...

A lot of people are already controlled by their employers, as to what they can and can't do in their own private time.

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ka43 said..
Your not alone. There are OH&S videos on how to operate a box cutter, I kid you not!!!!

There are Safety Data Sheets for everything from toothpaste, dishwashing liquid, even fly spray. Work environments are and rightly so, should have gestapo-like OH&S guidelines, as you wouldn't believe how stupid people can be around work kitchens!

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kiterboy said..
Perhaps you underestimate the propensity of those in power to come up with new ways to f#ck us over...

A lot of people are already controlled by their employers, as to what they can and can't do in their own private time.

I once had a manger (who was a very 'special' person) give me a serve at work because in his opinion I had committed an unsafe act. When I questioned him on what I had done wrong he said he saw me driving home with my elbow resting on my car door... The fact that the window was up and I had both hands on the wheel did not seem to matter. He proceeded to rabbit on about said offense during our safety meeting...

Rant = over

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kiterboy said..
Perhaps you underestimate the propensity of those in power to come up with new ways to f#ck us over...

A lot of people are already controlled by their employers, as to what they can and can't do in their own private time.

You better believe it.

Boyne Smelters, Gladstone, Qld a case in point. Workers are required to watch their work mates and report any OH & S breaches. Workers are expected to make at least 6 such reports per annum. Workers that make many reports receive pay bonuses.

Workers who in their own time choose to mow their yard and do not wear PPE (steel toe caps and full mono goggles included) are in breach of OH&S rules and if observed by another worker, that worker is obliged to report the incident.

They have some bitches there who are making a profession out of it over and above their normal employment.

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cisco said..

kiterboy said..
Perhaps you underestimate the propensity of those in power to come up with new ways to f#ck us over...

A lot of people are already controlled by their employers, as to what they can and can't do in their own private time.

You better believe it.

Boyne Smelters, Gladstone, Qld a case in point. Workers are required to watch their work mates and report any OH & S breaches. Workers are expected to make at least 6 such reports per annum. Workers that make many reports receive pay bonuses.

Workers who in their own time choose to mow their yard and do not wear PPE (steel toe caps and full mono goggles included) are in breach of OH&S rules and if observed by another worker, that worker is obliged to report the incident.

They have some bitches there who are making a profession out of it over and above their normal employment.

Got hit with same malarkey at last group I worked for.
So raised a point at executive meeting re culture and beliefs. Pointed out it was against most Australian culture to spy and report on fellow workmates, and should a person choose to do so, that person would be quickly ostracized from within the work teams. Being a very "team" orientated set up, this would be harmful to the overall work output, and degenerate into workplace dis-harmony.
Religious beliefs also plays a significant roll, with simular needs, beliefs and requirements.
The Company faced some significant hurdles to get around this whole process.
Needless to say the Zyloom who was trying to enforce this in the workplace was somewhat displeased much to my delight as I thought this person was a few roo's short in the top paddock when it came to workplace OH&S.
Suggestion put forward, was that should this be introduced, then from the CEO down needed to lead the charge and make public "his" reports on his fellow executives. Program terminated
Oh and the said Zyloom was that out of touch, she completed a contamination control assessment within a massive fabrication workshop shortly after, faulting that a three point plug in a remote part of the fab shop, had dust on top of it, and failed the complete shop.
The shop in question were a very tidy upfront group, and when they received the assessment, it all went like this for the Zylooms profile

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kiterboy said..
Driving tired is apparently equivalent to driving with a blood alcohol content, ie- you're basically driving drunk.

How long do you think it'll be before we're getting tested and fined for driving tired.

And further to that, if being tired means that you're effectively drunk; how long till we're getting tested and sacked for rocking up to work tired?

You're not allowed to turn up drunk for work, but being tired is the same thing, according to the road safety mob.

As soon as the rich and influential are potentially affected, when these matters turn into a "web of **it", they get swept under the carpet as mineral1 highlighted in his exec meeting.

All these topics disappoint me. Australia used to be she;ll be right mate.

Now its that kiter needs a license, you cant ride without a helmet and you can sue for that.

Australia toughen up. If you trip over raised concrete, its your fault. If you dive in at Bondi Beach and hit a sand bank, dont sue the lifeguards.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?