Posted By Katie Hoyland Hopefully someone can help me with this query. We have recently had a near miss in one of our offices involving an employee becoming entraped in a laminating machine with his tie. Luckily no injury was sustained. Would anyone have any idea of suitable contol measures that could be estabilished to reduce any risk of a more serious incident ( We have already implemented the obvious things such as increased warning signage on the laminator, staff training , issue of tie retaining clips etc). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Posted By Gilly Margrave Ban the wearing of ties? What if it had been the shredder? Gilly

Posted By Sean Fraser Kate, Disclaimers in court don't work - you still need to prove you took all reasonable care and reduced the risk to as far as reasonably practicable.

Posted By Lewis T Roberts How big is the lamenator? Lew

Posted By Peter Batty I am somewhat surprised that the drive motor is capable of pulling a person into a dangerous situation. Our office shredder will stop if more than 4 sheets of paper are fed into it, a tie would certainly jam it. The laminator would be similar, they are normally synthetic drive rollers that will slip if overloaded with thick paper etc. Perhaps the unit is faulty, does the manufacturer fit slipping clutches to the drive ? and if so has the machine been checked for malfunction ? Peter

Posted By MarkSMark If his tie was damaged by the laminator can he claim for a new one? Also, in a factory there would be an emergency stop on machinery incase something like this happened. Does office equipment like laminators and shredders need e stops too?

Posted By Keith Whittle Kate, has anyone considered the use of a hot work permit? Surely you have! Remember that if you use office 'Temps' then a contractor induction is required and close personal supervision. In addition to this has anyone in your organisation undertaken manual handling assessments for water dispensers? KW

Posted By Mike Craven What hair I have left is dark brown with more than a couple of grey bits - although being married to a blonde may have an effect - but I have to confess that I would never in a milion years have thought of issuing a hot work permit to allow someone to use a laminating machine? Having said that, on introducing a permit to work system at a recent previous employment, I received some puzzled looks from the two guys that wanted to have one of their (regular) looks on the roof of the sixth floor of one of our buildings when I suuggested that a permit might be necessary!! Mike

Posted By Hilary Charlton I too am blonde and would never have thought of a hot work permit for using a laminating machine - especially one of the tiddly little office type ones - my word we must be casting around looking for things to make us busy. By the same token, a guy gets his tie stuck in the laminator, a 12" laminator is not going to drag a fully grown man into it and cover him in plastic - with the best will in the world he will have plenty of time to unplug the machine, walk over to a desk and cut the end of his tie off. A waste of a good tie I grant and a warning notice may be required but this really is as far as is reasonably practicable. As for shredders - about 12 years ago we had a guy who shredded his tie in a small office shredder - we laughed because it was very very funny. It has not happened since and the likelihood of it happening are remote enough not to give rise to major concern. I would do as you have done, put a notice on it, recommend tie clips and warn people but that's enough - this really is a very very unlikely thing to ever happen again and if it did it is hardly life threatening. Hilary

Posted By Ron Hunter Is this entire thread one big wind up or what? Sensible positioning of the laminator - yes. Readily accessible switch on side of laminator/at wall socket - yes. A pair of scissors handy somewhere in the office (although I'm sure you could drag your tie back out of the average office laminator once you'd switched it off) - yes. As for the rest (and particularly hot work permits!) forget it - are you people being serious?!!!!(some of you I suspect not!)

Posted By Stuart Nagle Interesting. This also opens the can or worms entitled 'one rule for females another for males' in respect of dress in the office. In general it is my personal opinion that males being required to wear ties in offices (particularly if in non-client facing roles or not attending meetings with customers etc) is an un-nessarsary hangover from a bygone age. I am 'familiar' myself with the phrase 'Your looking very casual today' as applied to a male when not wearing a tie in the office, whilst at the same time observing females in the office in various types of dress (and - dare I say it! almost undress) that is never commented upon, or if so, in a 'different' manner reagrdless of the suitability of their dress or otherwise... I would be interested in the comments of others on this issue. (Please note that these comments are not intended to be sexist or portray sexism - although some may have alternative views at the simple mention of this somewhat contentious issue) but a serious attempt to gauge opinion on dress suitability./dress code in todays office environment. Regards... Stuart

Posted By Paul Leadbetter While I think a dress code has some validity for staff who meet the public or clients, I am all for informality. I am self-employed so jeans and tee shirt are my usual garb at home but I wear a collar and tie or even a suit when visiting clients or prospective clients. After all, 'you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression'. Paul

Posted By Katie Hoyland gilly speak for yourself..... my dress is never up in the air. x katie

Posted By Katie Hoyland sometimes life just gets too serious, sorry i'm in one of those moods! x