Posted By TERRY D W I WORK FOR A BAKERY IN THE WEST MIDLANDS. I HAVE WORKED THERE FOR TWENTY THREE YEARS. I AM ALSO CHAIRMAN OF THE BAKERY BRANCH OF THE TGWU. OUR SITE BOSS HAS DECIDED UNILATERALLY ( AS WE ARE PART OF A BIG COMPANY ) TO REQUIRE US UNDER H/S TO START WEARING HARD HATS ANYWERE ON SITE. THERE HAVE BEEN NO SERIOUS HEAD INJURIES, IN FACT THERE HAVE BEEN ONLY THREE MINOR HEAD INJURIES OVER THE PAST TWO YEARS, ( THIS FIGURE WAS GIVEN TO US BY ANOTHER SENIOR MANAGER WHO IS OPPOSED TO THIS MEASURE ). THERE HAS BEEN NO CONSULTATION, HE HAS NOT ATTEMPTED TO LIMIT THE RISK OF INJURY, BY EDUCATION OF THE WORKFORCE, OR BY POSTING APPROPRIATE SIGNS OR ATTEMPTING TO IDENTIFY AND ELIMINATE POSSIBLE HAZZARDS, OR BY REMOVING ANY SUCH PERCEIVED HAZZARDS. WE HAVE THEREFORE REGISTERED A FORMAL GREIVANCE. ANY THOUGHTS ON THIS MATTER WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. APPOLOGIES FOR THE LENGTH OF THIS MESSAGE.

Posted By David Bramall Terry I can sympathise with you - it does appear to be OTT. When you say you work in a bakery, I tend to assume that you are a Baker, but this is not necassarily the case. If your manager has identified a real hazard with a particular operation, where hard hatd would eliminate / reduce the risk then good on him for protecting his workforce. The main concern is by insisting on hard hats throughout the site, the hazards in some operations are much less than others, and quite possibly nil. The Baker probably needs a big tall white hat, like a chef, so where does he wear his hard hat. Regards David

Posted By Paul Leadbetter Terry What happened to the consultation stage of this decision? Paul

Posted By TERRY D W MY PREVIOUS MSG DID NOT SAY THAT MY JOB IN THE BAKERY IS A DELIVERY DRIVER. WE DO NOT GO INTO ANY, WHAT COULD BE DESCRIBED AS HAZARDOUS, AREA,S. YOUR THOUGHTS AGAIN PLEASE

Posted By Jason911 This does seem strange. Ask yourself if there is any chance of an employee suffering a head injury anywhere onsite, even in areas not normally travelled i.e to use the breakroom or rest facilities, which you may not normally use onsite if you are a delivery driver. Ask you company to provide justification for the decision in the form of a risk assessment if possible, which is required to be in writing for an employer with more than five employees and should be prepared after consultation with employees actually doing the tasks it is aimed at. Ask your employer about any previous injuries to employees as a result of not wearing head protection. I find it hard to believe that they would introduce this policy just for the sake of it, but then stranger things have happened at sea, or up north. That was a joke by the way, so please don't email a response on the strengh of it. Jay

Posted By TERRY D W We do not use restraining bars to secure our laods. we use restraining belts. Thanks for your responces up to now, but more please. It is all helping us to build a case against this decision.

Posted By Adam Hammerton It's been a long time (16 years) since I used to work with my dad as a (unofficial) YP out of a major manufacturers West Brom depot but unless the job has changed significantly I am struggling to see the need for hard hats. Yes, there were the occaisional bumped heads (usually when climbing in and out of the wagon) but nothing more serious than you would expect to encounter in normal life (never drew blood or had to do more than curse for being clumsy). The only falling objects I encountered were normally a result of poor maintenance to the wheels of dollies causing them to jam and resulting in the stack you were pulling toppling over. If you were unlucky enough to trip and be beneath the falling load then there would be a chance of injury but it would be whole body and the hard hat would be next to useless as a method of protection. I could possibly understand if you were using restraining bars as I have seen them placed in some precarious positions but if your on straps then it sounds like ill thought through generic overkill unless a specific reason has been identified during risk assessment or accident investigation, etc. If that's the case though the reason should have been discussed with you / your representative at the consultation stage. Adam

Posted By TERRY D W There was'nt any investigation done into any of the minor head injury accidents, i am certain of this because the last accident happened to me. I was not interviewed at all about the incident, and no other avenues have been explored. Just straight to helmets.

Posted By Tony Brunskill Terry, I think we have to be a little cautious here. Three minor injuries may just be the signpost Bird was talking about when he developed his triangle. My experience is in Industrial type bakeries and loading bays can often have a number of hazards that give rise to the risk of head injuries. It is common place now for warehouse staff operating alongside FLTs or high racking to wear head protection for example. Many of the risks are dynamic and therefore engineering controls are difficult to implement. It is also my experience that many "managers" in these environments have a limited knowledge of H&S and therefore it follows the controls are going to be limited by the extent of that knowledge. I believe there is a duty to consult on the findings of the risk assessment but not on the process of risk assessment (although most employers would recognise the benefits of doing so), therefore I would tread carefully with the "consultation" argument. Without all the facts and a good understanding of the processes that are undertaken in the environments where hard hats are mandatory it would be unprofessional to comment on the suitability of control measures adopted. Do bear in mind that PPE, although a last resort can often be introduced as a temporary measure until other controls can be established. Finally, what are the objections to wearing a hard hat? If these are genuine and justified then put the objection in writing to your employer, you have a legal duty to inform him/her if the objections are based on H&S concerns. The argument of "we never had to wear them before" can often be torn to shreds by a half decent manager of safety professional. There are alot of risks in bakery operations that need to be controlled, dust explosions, mixing machines, knives, thermal comfort, manual handling, burns, gas, electricity etc etc, perhaps this is the time for a concerted push being as you appear to have a manager that is taking a interest in your well being. Regards Tony