Wonder if you can help? An employee refusing to work in our man basket because he say he has to wear a safety harness. I keep finding contradicting information as to whether you need one or not. Would anyone know the legalities of this or have come across a similair situation and how it was resolved. Thank you

Even more simply, does the equipment have an anchor point fitted, if not even if you have one it can't be fitted safely. If there is one fitted, then it is intended by the manufacturer as a safety measure and must be complied with. Silly question, but does the harness fit the individual? (past experience)

Depends really on the man basket. If it is attached to a boom type MEWP I would suggest a harness with fall restraint lanyard be worn. If a scissor type, it depends as Rick says on your risk assessment. A well known training provider for mobile access equipment recommends the above guidance. Some contractors require a harness & lanyard in all circumstances. But it will depend on where you use it, in what weather conditions - the north of Scotland isn't known for for its fair weather!

Has the man worked in such situations before? As if not it may simply a case of being afraid of heights We had two lads [different cases] who did not tell us about their genuine fear of heights and when put in a certain work position [sent up in what look like normal lifts but they open out into open air work platforms/ganteries [In normal lifts in normal situations e.g. in a store or similar they were OK] froze. Thereafter we had to find them work at ground level

Am I reading this wrongly? - my interpretation of the posting is that the man believes that he should wear a safety harness when in the man basket, and he won't go in the basket without one - every other poster seems to assume that he's refusing to wear one Whatever the interpretation of the question, I think the Risk Assessment should make clear what is required

Alan I also interpretated it, as the person is wanting to wear a harness before entering the man basket!

I always associate man baskets with those fitted on the front of a forklift in which case my view a harness would be required. Phil

quote=PhilBeale]I'm reading it that because he has to wear one harness he is refusing to go in the man basket. Otherwise why not just provide the Harness anyway if the guy wants to wear one what would the issue be in taking precautions above what might be on the risk assessment? Phil

I think more information is needed form the original poster otherwise we are all guessing with not all the facts. Which could be more harmful than useful. Phil

If that many people are using the cage that you are worried about the cost of harnesses then I'd suggest using a cage is the wrong piece of equipment in the first place. I certainly wouldn't want to stand in a dock and justify why I deemed harnesses unneccassery.

If it is "regular and predicable" then a forktruck mounted platform should not be used.

Totally agree with Phil on this one. Also don't forget the training of the FLT operator. We had a near miss a couple of years ago when the cage was not correctly mounted on the forks!

Safety harnesses are all well and good. But do you have the ability to rescue the guy should he fall? Even with a harness a fall can have very serious implications and a very dim view would be taken if you couldn't rescue him safely and very quickly (less than 20 minutes is a a time I've heard.) The very best of luck sorting this out, obviously a tricky situation on lots of fronts, as always...

‘Cooper’ - first things first I don’t Have a great deal of experience of these baskets, but I know what they are and have seen them in operation. My ’gut’ feeling would be that a restraining harness may well be appropriate. I note that you say “The risk assessment did not highlight the need for a harness, as we deemed it not necessary..” which is Ok to a point, but do wonder whether you might want to revisit that as I don’t know about others, but a couple of things that you have ’said’ at #18 are sort of ringing alarm bells with me; specifically: 1. “and the employee has been doing the same job for a while with no problems” - I am wondering if that is ‘you’ that doesn’t have the problem, or the employee that doesn’t have the problem. He clearly does now, not that is necessarily a case for changing your precautions, but it does suggest to me that you may want to consider reviewing your risk assessment. Or do you mean by ’no problem’ that nobody has managed to fall from the cage - yet?! and 2. “which will in turn lead to more cost for the business..”. If the risk is such that a cost has to be incurred, then so be it. Again I note that your original assessment suggested a harness was not necessary, but see above and the other posts in the thread. Any decision NOT to provide something must be after consideration of both the risk and the cost, not the cost alone i.e. SFARP. I do not advocate changing procedures, or the result of a risk assessment just because someone is ’kicking off’ or ‘moaning’ a bit or whatever, but do bear in mind that their concern may be entirely valid, and I do wonder whether you need to take a step back and reconsider/review. Don’t just consider the pennies!

Harnesses are required for all variants of this equipment OTHER than scissor lifts. I always maintain that if you state that a harness is used on a scissorlift, even via the risk assessment, then your logic leads to their use on scaffolds also!! I do agree that you appear to be using the wrong piece of equipment Bob

A lot of people have commented on the fact they are using the wrong piece of equipment given the frequency of the work, which i wouldn't disagree with. But we also need to remeber that companies might not have a few thousand pound laying around to spend on new equipment. So while it would be good to be able to buy the new equipment it is not always possible so as H&S bods we need to look at the next best alternative. Which might be to make the current method as safe as possible and i would say training personnel on the use of harness's might be what we have to accept we have to accept for the immediate future until an alternative to having to do the activity can be found or better equipment can be purchased. You can't always throw money at a problem. Phil

While the use of a lift-truck mounted work cage is [maybe] ok for a quick lamp-change, I see nothing but grief [eventually] by using the thing for regular maintenance or installation. My memories of lift-truck mounted cages are of devices that sway alarmingly (fore/aft/side-to-side), which largely depends upon the state of the forks and mountings of same....given the use of the trucks and the basic nature of the parts I do not see that getting better with time ! The inevitability of something going wrong given the very basic nature of the whole system is also something to consider. Since a harness and restraint lanyard cost less than 75 quid I do not see the cost as unaffordable. A lot less costly than having the works premises closed for a few days while police and H&S personnel investigate a serious or fatal accident. That's if we're talking cost as "financial" and ignore the personal grief aspect

Forgive me for interjecting but, surely it depends on the type of MEWP? Scissors lift baskets are normally designed so that fall arrest equipment is not needed ie guard rail insitu, whereas a cherry picker or any similar boom type equipment will require the user to wear fall arrest. Why insist on fall arrest if it is not necessary?

you will find HSE stance on this subject here http://www.hse.gov.uk/workplacetransport/pm28.pdf

Afternoon, Personally I would be more worried about the use of the basket in the first place. I am not sure from what I have read that by using the basket the company is complying with LOLER & PUWER to name but two. So just a couple of thoughts to throw into the mix, 1) Is the basket specifically made by an approved manufacturer to fit the forklift that it is being used with or is it something made in-house? 2) Is an external compatibility certificate stating that the basket can be used on this fork lift available? 3) If not how is the basket attached to the fork lift, what stops it falling off and who approved it as compatible? 4) Is the basket regularly inspected by a competent person e.g. insurance surveyor and is that inspection recorded? 5) Is the SWL of the basket known and visible on the basket? 6) Does the task that the basket is being used for come within that SWL taking into account, the person their tools, any equipment being loaded into the basket. 7) What is the height of the work being carried out and how does this affect the stability of the forklift? There are a lot more but that's enough