This has been bugging me for the last few days. I'm in a contract role at the moment. I arranged to meet a supervisor at the end of last week. I'm still trying to get a feel for this company. Impressions have been mixed. This one person seemed to all intent very safety conscious. But after announcing to me he tells his guys that if you can't perform a task safely then don't do it at all. Consult with supervision and other support until a firm safe solution is formulated and they can guarantee the job can be done safely. He then followed up with a situation where his team were performing a heavy lifting task. They discovered that their lifting tackle's certification was out of date by about a week. But he decided they would continue with the work anyway!!! I'm all for getting the job done but this kind of thing really winds me up. I reacted in an even tempered manner and expressed my disappointment. This kind of hypocritical attitude drives me up the wall. What do people think? What other examples or anecdotes can people relate which are similar to this type of attitude?

Under the circumstances the supervisor made a good call. Reserve your ire for whoever let the cert run out

this is quite a normal attitude in the workplace, and what you are there to prevent i think. Had that have happened in my location the equipment would have been quarantined. Looks like the maintinance dept needs a kicking too for laps in maintinance.

So long as the equipment does not prove to be a danger at that point in time, I'd say the supervisor made a good call. We must remember that safety supervision not only helps maintain personnel & equipment safety, but also helps make the business move smoothly and timely too! Your response should be to improve on the provisions for ensuring timely inspection and certification of equipment in collaboration with the maintenance department.

We come across this too. Lads want the job done but find equipment out of it's test date. However.... we test equipment more often than any regs require, so when equipment is out of date, it is still 'legal' and safe. All equipment is inspected prior to use as a matter of course and the supervisor / operative decides there and then if equipment is safe to use. To have ago at the maintenance function is not fair. They will no doubt have records for equipment, but the normal problem I find is getting the flaming stuff off the vans and in for testing / inspection! Not as simple just to lambast the supervisor for using out of date equipment, or shouting at the maintenance function for not keeping up. It's about a culture of common sense, safety and finding a balance between being pedantic and stopping all jobs for the most minor things and getting the job done safely. As a safety officer a pinch of sugar gets you a lot further than a spoonful of salt...

I for one would not. heavy lifting equipment is subject to high stress and impact levels and as such can fail suddernly. In the event of failure it is likley to cause serious injury and possibly death. this equipment should be a high priority on any maintinance schedule. I would want to re evaluate how this equipment is managed as there is a systemic failure in management. I am not going to go into how this is making me feel as the safety of my staff are paramount and this type of complacency makes me ..... angry

As someone said earlier.. piece of paper doesn't make it safe on Monday but not Tuesday. (when it is it not safe? Midnight? 8 am? 5 pm previous evening?)

Try saying that to a policeman who has stopped you for a random check and your MOT ran out or Insurance. The pieces of paper make you legally safe not physically safe but as stated we all know what would happen legally if it went wrong! How can the supervisor make a judgement as to the state of repair of the equipment unless he was a qualified mechanical engineer? The competency of the issuer of the certificate is competent to say its safe not any tom dick or harry!

I have some sympathy with pmace. As a new forum user he/she has taken a bit of a bashing here and is probably feeling a bit shell shocked now. Looking at the original post he/she seems to be between a rock and a hard place, with the supervisor firstly stating that the workforce must not perform a task if it is not safe, and then going on to condone a potentially hazardous activity using a lifting aid where the certification was out of date. It is true to say that the lifting aid may well have been safe, but what would we be saying if it had gone pear shaped and there was an injury - the no win no fee guys would certainly be having a field day. Hypocritical maybe, but certainly a knock to the Supervisors credibility. pmace tells us that he/she reacted in an even tempered manner over the issue and expressed their disappointment. I say cut him/her a bit of slack.