Posted By Neil Pearson I suggest you carry out an official investigation as you would for an accident. In my view it is very important not to jump too quickly to disciplinary action. Just think of all the other factors. For example, if time is part of the reason, what pressures was the worker under? Did his departmental management press to hard for speed and not hard enough for safety? What monitoring and inspection does the department carry out? Why has it not succeeed in stopping behaviour this extreme? Get together the manager, the worker, the driver and any witnesses and a safety rep. Look at all the factors influencing that worker's behaviour. Try to identify immediate and root causes, just like for an accident. In my experience, when you do this, you start to feel like discipling the manager, not the worker. I'm not saying the worker should get away without any reprimand, but he is only responding to the pressures and culture around him. You need to address the management reasons behind this behaviour.

Posted By Neil Pearson Fair enough then Bill. You do have to show that you simply won't accept this sort of behaviour. I still think you might look at line management issues behind this attitude and behaviour, but when someone displays that sort of attitude you have to come down hard.

Posted By Merv Newman Bill, yes, this is gross misconduct, but I would not go straight to sacking them. Very heavy disciplinary action is required, with lots of publicity about what a stupid thing this is to do and heavy warnings to all about the consequences Merv Newman

Posted By Jason Gould Their is definatly a culture issue here. Why do i say that. Well their were two people involved remember the one on the forks. Was he aware of the dangers as FLT drivers are?. Was he under pier pressure? as it seems the driver is the one who could not be bothered or was it both of them or the man wanting to go on the forks. ( personaly the driver has the resposibility for his truck. If this behaviour is not accepted in your policy then stick with your policy. By all means check that this as not been overlooked by management when their is a rush(accepted behaviour). If what you say about the drivers response then Im afraid I would go for the sacking option of at least one of the involved. I have driven forklifts for many years and have to admit that I have done silly things on trucks when younger. If I was ever sacked for doing these things I dont think I could throw anything back at the managemnt. When we are given the training we are told what not to do (black and white no grey in the middle). We know its illegal yet we take our chances to save time(not just for managemnt benefits). If this scenario was transposed to a company not being bothered to implement some safety procedure cos it was deemed too troublesome then we would all be slating them. From what you say these employees had two platforms to choose from so the excuse of insufficiant equipment is out of the window. Look into the possibilty of culture in organisation and do not be too hasty. I would also like to stress the negative effect of premature action. Forklift drivers do have a tendency to go slow to extremities when they feel they are being unfaily treated. (no praise for doing correct job and extreme punishment for mishap). I would read the keeping a job thread and then decide upon your action. As I do not know your company please remember I am only voicing my opinoin of the facts that I see them. I may have chosen a different course of action if i was there. Finally If I could propose a more pragmatic approach which could Invovle suspension from work with no pay whilst a investigaion was being carried out. Get the backing of a director so as to have Junior management reflect on any implications of their actions. (put the poops up everyone)make sure all staff recieve warning letters and review policy with regards to FLTs. This both puts the message across that the company takes a serious view to this sort of behaviour. Think safety culture safety culture. Good luck in whatever action you decide regards Jason