oh&s gone to far, page-26

kippa5, if one step on a staircase has different height to the others there will eventually be an accident. This is a dangerous situation and every employee as well as the employer has a duty to remedy this. If it's a single step and not a staircase then simple signage would probably suffice.

OH&S has much less to do with unions these days, it has much more involvement with company lawyers.

Bruceyg, I've worked offshore for a long time now, your Piper Alpha comments are extremely misguided. The Lord Cullen Investigation had it precisely correct, in large management was to blame. Having 3 pumps is a stupid suggestion, even if the two fire pumps worked the sprinkler system was totally ineffective and the management knew this and had done absolutely nothing to fix it. Even now offshore facilities have two fire pumps, connected commonly but located on opposite sides of the facility.

One place I used to work at we had a few minor hand injuries due to knife use. Common nicks and cuts. The manager came out to the platform, held a meeting with all employees and 'she' banned all knife use, she then left the facility. When we went to have dinner that night there were no knives and no-one could cut the meat. So the staff retrieved the cutlery from the recycling bin so we could at least eat! Every employee secretly has kept their knives in their toolbags as there really is no replacement for a good knife in some situations. This situation to me just shows how rediculous some management has become.

I bet this same company doesn't have the same rules for their Chinese operations.