How Hard Has It All Become........

pauline · Guru

How Hard Has It All Become........

pauline · Guru

We are presently in Mackay and hubby is working here on the sugar cane, he has been driving trucks for 40 years and all of a sudden has to do all these things like inductions and stuff, he even got put on report today because when he got out of his truck he had his sleeves rolled up a bit, is it just me or what the hell has happened to this country........very sad state of affairs he has not been put on report since he was in high school, just wondering how other people feel, makes me wonder how we ever made it this far, and the worst part is somebody had to put him in for that awful discretion, and they did.

woody · Veteran Member

It is a symptom of the times.I am 66 been working on building sites, in the mines and caravan parks since I was 15, and they sent me off to do a course to get a white card last year ( at the age of 65!!!), or a green card or whatever it was, in WA you also need to get a police check to work in lots of places. I think ":we" ( they, whoever THEY are) are losing the plot.
AND I think they could possibly learn a lot from our generation if they shut their gobs and open their ears for a little while. Thats my 2bobs worth

pauline · Guru

Just felt so sad that a man like him who has been a hard worker his whole life had to listen to somebody ( not his fault, just doing his job ) tell him he was a bad boy.......

DeBe · Guru

Perhaps the newer & younger breed of workers cant be trusted to start work without the extra training(induction). Its got to the stage here that Farmers cant drive onto a Silo site to deliver grain without (Induction training) most have been doing it for years, so what has changed!!!

pauline · Guru

At the moment I feel a bit like Peter Finch in that movie...........I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore, if only it was that simple.

dazren · Guru

Gidday Pauline,

It's called Occupational Health and Safety , In our day we called it ''Commensense;; It has some good points, However so many Industries Go way overboard with it's implementation, because of the Insurance companies, and Goverment Regulations. It is a Industry within Industry ???

OH !! and Woody ? you cannot put in your 2 Bobs worth, unless you have a brown card with a yellow star in top left hand corner biggrin biggrin

NeilandRaine · Guru

Here's the thing. All the beauracrats (spell check) sit around wondering what type of empire they can build, and then run to earn big bucks.
Good work if you can get it, bugger the poor bloody workers who it effects.

hammer · Senior Member

It's called red tape and ass covering as no one can think for them self now and commonsence is something from the past. We do more paperwork and less work.

Cruising Granny · Guru

There's dollars to be made out of this training business. It has evolved because of stupid people doing stupid things and getting hurt because they wouldn't be told.
I worked in pubs and bars for years, now they have to do a course first. Dollars there.
These corporations are going over the top because those at the top are really stupid and have no idea what happens on "the ground floor".
It starts at the top level of everywhere, including parliament, where these laws are introduced because some idiot didn't know how to make sure their staff knew how to behave in the real world.
The sleeve thing is about sun burn and skin cancer. People are suing the pants off everyone these days, so they have to protect their behinds from litigation.
The world has gone crazy!

pauline · Guru

CG, I so agree how crazy this world is, so glad I won't be around in 20 or so years, not the way I remember growing up when being an Aussie was something we were all proud to be and we stuck together and watched each others backs...........not anymore, like I said somebody had to put him in for having his shirt sleeves up 6 inches and it was raining all day..........sorry to be so aggro about it but just can't get my head around it, just is not the way I grew up. Having said all that he is in bed snoring his head off so he won't loose any sleep over it LOL.

jetj · Guru

You have to have a police check to volunteer for the Rural Fire Service and undoubtedly other groups as well these days.

AlanB · Newbie

And the time is not far off when one will need a ticket to push a wheelbarrow as you will need it to take all your tickets to work! Thats if one can afford all the tickets to obtain a position. Makes you feel good to know you survived thru the good old days

mr glassies · Guru

amen dazren
hmm my brown card has the yellow star in the top right corner now i am confused is that so i can read these posts lol

if i pay for my operator the courses and the money my truck looses for the day for alllllll the tickets to contract to energex it costs me about 7/10,000 dollars then i got my own tickets there 2 boxes of paper work in each vehicle that goes on site no jewellery at all long sleeves, long pants on going tests on gloves rescue kit bla bla bla its for safety but sometimes its over board , sunshine coast council have just bought in long sleeves and long pants and its 3 strikes and you out . one guy has had 2 in a mth .
common sense has gone from work sites and the more we hold there hand the worse it gets . my vacuum trucks dont have a ticket of competency to work you should see the faces on some of these pimply face kids when we do an induction hehe there like what do we do now . i even had a mate (yes i do have some) got told he would have to put new tyres on his trencher because it had a small chip and i know the tyre peace of rubber missing from the tread lug when he was having an inspection for a pre start so ben just did the chains up told the guy find someone else and drove of . he warned me about this kid and i was ready for him after saying stupid stuff about my truck like do the wipers work um hello its a registered roadworthy truck i did the same thing . i didnt need the job that bad and never went back o they rang but na on principle so i was always busy when they rang. but if some companies need something done urgently they will sneak you in .

i cant wait for the business to sell so the only license i need is my car and marriage ones which i already have ( to the most special beautiful person ) and go

dibs

Zoomtopz · Guru

Hey CG , Chris , talking about doing a bar course . One of my younger

brothers Is a chronic alcoholic . My q is , how would he know when

somebody has had enough , when he doesn't know when he has had

enough himself .

Years ago , when I was still Driving , I had to do an induction for a delivery.

It had 10-12 q's about asbestos , I wasn't even delivering asbestos , I was

delivering food . Another one , I had to have , hard hat , gloves , long sleeves

long trousers , 10 dogs & chains , had to chain load their way . After several

loads I asked bloke , how come when I get to Berowra , I have to tighten

th dogs up , he says well that is your responsibility . I says NO , you are

telling me here that when I do this Your way , the load will stay on till I get

to Bris . What do you believe , a shipping clerk at a steel mill or you own

25yrs of experience of driving . You were not to leave this place overloaded

either , but they would not let you check your axle weights . I pointed out,

that seeing We had to do everything their way , if we were over on an axle

they wear th fine , they put up a digital so we could check our weights as

we drove onto th weighbridge . At BHP , if you were 1kilo over,th computer

would not print your del dockets.

Richo

sandsmere · Guru

These health and safety mob have far to much power .

Hitler had them back in the 1930s / 1940s . He called them Gestapo .

Hylda&Jon · Guru

Cruising Granny wrote:
There's dollars to be made out of this training business. It has evolved because of stupid people doing stupid things and getting hurt because they wouldn't be told.
I worked in pubs and bars for years, now they have to do a course first. Dollars there.
These corporations are going over the top because those at the top are really stupid and have no idea what happens on "the ground floor".
It starts at the top level of everywhere, including parliament, where these laws are introduced because some idiot didn't know how to make sure their staff knew how to behave in the real world.
The sleeve thing is about sun burn and skin cancer. People are suing the pants off everyone these days, so they have to protect their behinds from litigation.
The world has gone crazy!

The wisdom of Granny shines through again.

Keith19837 · Senior Member

Cruising Granny wrote:
There's dollars to be made out of this training business. It has evolved because of stupid people doing stupid things and getting hurt because they wouldn't be told.
I worked in pubs and bars for years, now they have to do a course first. Dollars there.
These corporations are going over the top because those at the top are really stupid and have no idea what happens on "the ground floor".
It starts at the top level of everywhere, including parliament, where these laws are introduced because some idiot didn't know how to make sure their staff knew how to behave in the real world.
The sleeve thing is about sun burn and skin cancer. People are suing the pants off everyone these days, so they have to protect their behinds from litigation.
The world has gone crazy!

Absolutely right CG (may I use your initials?). All these courses etc are so that Insurance Companies (who now run Workers Comp in Vic) have an 'out' if the taining isn't complied with. Suing is becoming more prevalent.

Zoomtopz · Guru

Giving evidence in a court case 15y ago , th defence QC kept asking me , if I

was accredited for this , ask another q , ask me if I was accredited for that .

It has Allready happened .

I suppose they have allready got their accreditation to w*nk

Richo

-- Edited by Zoomtopz on Wednesday 11th of July 2012 08:02:07 PM

fireheart · Senior Member

The world is full of over educated idiots, a quote from my cousin and the frustrations that she and her hubby have running a delivery business. I am beginning to believe her.

golivers travels · Guru

AlanB wrote:
And the time is not far off when one will need a ticket to push a wheelbarrow as you will need it to take all your tickets to work! Thats if one can afford all the tickets to obtain a position. Makes you feel good to know you survived thru the good old days

Well you do need a ladder licence to use a ladder in the workplace these days, no more standing on tables. As a former teacher we had to train to use a ladder if we wanted to put up displays in our classrooms or get balls off the top of buildings or from trees. Kids are not allowed to climb trees to get them.

Delta18 · Guru

If a bar-person pours a drink to a drunk person they are in deep doo doo. How come maccas can sell double whoppers to fat people & get away with it?

NeilandRaine · Guru

AlanB wrote:
And the time is not far off when one will need a ticket to push a wheelbarrow as you will need it to take all your tickets to work! Thats if one can afford all the tickets to obtain a position. Makes you feel good to know you survived thru the good old days

Actually you do need a ticket to push a wheelbarrow if you work on a construction site

the rocket · Guru

I hear your distress. poor hubby. shame the way everything is going but one good thing for me: I am glad I am on the way out, not the way in smile smile smile smile smile

pauline · Guru

not for awhile yet I hope rocket...........this whole business just really pees me off big time, this country was built by hard working men and women rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck into the job that had to be done, I will now step down from my soapbox.

03_troopy · Guru

hammer wrote:
It's called red tape and ass covering as no one can think for them self now and commonsence is something from the past. We do more paperwork and less work.

Exactly mate.. It's the tick in the box that lets the company off when you get injured at work. You get the little "take 5" pads.. the JSA forms to fill out for each task. If you don't fill it out then you're in the poo with the company. If you do fill it out and you get injured in your job, then they have evidence that they did what was required. At the end of the day, it's 99.9% arse covering by the company.

wendyv · Guru

OH&S has gone crazy. I guess it is a response to people becoming increasingly likely to sue if they do something wrong themselves and get hurt - blame the company and sue it! Same sort of story as when a couple of people dived into shallow water , without checking first, and got injured and then sued councils etc for their own stupidity.

That said, it seems to me that some of the regulation goes to a ridiculous level.

I do have a funny OHS story, though. Place I worked - we had a local Safety Officer on site, but there was a superior one who visited from office a couple of hundred km away. Local SO was offsite on another job. An electrical subbie had put a ladder on the back of his ute, to reach a high light (not the brightest thing to do, especially as said light had a mechanism whereby it could be swung down to ground level). Visiting OHS guy arrived, got his knickers in a knot and took some photos of subbie up the ladder working on the light. Then he rushed back to base and posted same on website. Then he was asked whether he had ordered subbie down, etc. Answer - no! He was too excited about his photos, didn't think to take any action. Duhhh..........

rockylizard · Guru

Gday...

Last year I was picking citrus in the Gayndah area. Picking citrus requires standing on aluminum ladders to reach the uppermost fruit. Methodology is place ladder, climb ladder and pick uppermost fruit, then progressively move down the ladder and then finish off that area of tree while standing on ground. Move ladder and repeat the process.

If it begins raining, the farmer had to send us home because OH&S determines that we were not allowed to pick on the ladders if even just damp. Apparently, if we slipped off the wet ladder not only were we not covered for WorkCover, but he would be liable for a substantial fine. This means we as pickers (on contract rates) don't make any money and he (the farmer) does not get fruit in so he can fill his orders and make a quid.

After the first time this happened, I suggested to him that I would stay rather than go home and I would stand on the ground and pick fruit. Then, if it stopped raining that day, I would get back up ladder and finish the top of the trees. If not, I would pick the top of the trees the next day.

He was really thankful and I continued picking, staying on the ground - although the backpackers who were also working there just went home, which left me working on me own.

There is always a way to comply with the OH&S 'rules' if all work sensibly together - to meet the requirement (and intent) of the 'rule' and pragmatically find solutions beneficial to all.

I guess, in the instance that began this thread, the 'owner/boss' should have simply provided 'advice/feedback/training' regarding the rolling up of sleeves (rather than barrelling/reporting him) and, with sleeves rolled back down, simply got on with the work.

(However, I do agree that OH&S has developed because the majority always suffer from the ineptitude/stupidity of the minority)

Cheers - John

-- Edited by rockylizard on Thursday 12th of July 2012 10:29:32 AM

Peterpan · Guru

It struck not only the workforce but the defence force as well. When I was in the DF the rule was sleeves rolled up to a certain level and 4finger widths wide unless you were wearing a jumper or coat. Then came the change to wearing cams, sleeves down at all times. Someone caused a bit of a ruckus due to members having sunburned arms and faces.

Keith19837 · Senior Member

03_troopy wrote:
Exactly mate.. It's the tick in the box that lets the company off when you get injured at work. You get the little "take 5" pads.. the JSA forms to fill out for each task. If you don't fill it out then you're in the poo with the company. If you do fill it out and you get injured in your job, then they have evidence that they did what was required. At the end of the day, it's 99.9% arse covering by the company.

You are so right, Troopy. Whilst I was in the Police Force, we were expected to sign a workplace insurance agreement that stipulated (in part) that "We would not be covered if we put ourselves into a dangerous situation." I made the obvious comment of : "Er..isn't that part of our job to put ourselves into dangerous situations?" Our Association had to go back to the private insurer to get the stipulation clarified. One could just imagine it; "Sorry Ma'am, I can't attend to your armed robbery in progress because I'm not covered if I put myself in a dangerous situation".