Matty F wrote:
On Aug 10, 12:42 pm, "Clive George" wrote:
Changing the padlock when the electrician is about will mean people have
to think about why they can't get into the box, which means they will get
to read the sign. Also, make your sign more obvious : "Electrician
working, do not touch" is better than just "Leave off".
The old sign said a bit more than that. I've made a new one that's
12"x8" and double sided.
The sign would stop pretty much anybody getting the bolt croppers.
I want to be 100% certain. Padlocks have been cut off frequently
elsewhere. The people concerned do not necessarily have a high IQ.
Also, who has keys to the padlock? You ought to be able to contact them -
do so. If you can't, time to revisit your systems.
Sure we can contact them. How do we make them be observant and follow
the rules?
Forgot to add - if this is at a place of work (implied by "sack a moron"),
boltchoppers on that padlock = H+S breach = bollocking/sacking. If you've
got staff who will consider doing that, you need to seriously clamp down on
them.
Too late after someone has died. It might be me that's dead. I am
really ****ed off.
You seem to have a systemic failure. You can't really legislate for
this. If the management are so appallingly unconcerned about health and
safety that they would bolt-crop the padlock off even though there was a
large sign telling them not to for a good reason, then you basically
need to call the HSE for advice.
In the interim:
1. Refuse to work on the equipment at all and advise anybody else who
may work on the equipment that they take their life in their hands. Make
it a big issue that everybody knows about, so nobody can ignore it,
especially management. You're under no obligation to put your life at
risk in this way. A lack of significant action by management would
constitute constructive dismissal if you felt you had to leave your job
to avoid dying.
2. If you do choose to work on the equipment, absolutely put a different
padlock and a big sign on whilst you are working on the system. Make the
sign big enough to cover the whole box so it has to be moved out of the
way before any attempt can be made at the padlock.
Buy this type of padlock if you can bring it to bear: -
http://www.locksonline.co.uk/acatalo..._Padlocks.html
or
http://www.locksonline.co.uk/acatalo...Padlocks_.html
They're harder to bolt-crop.
3. Arrange for a second power isolator to be installed. The second power
isolator could be upstream or downstream of the existing one, but should
be either physically out of sight of the original or in a location where
its purpose is not obvious (i.e adjacent to a load of switchgear). Make
this isolator lockable as well (and don't issue any keys). Then do your
best to keep the location/purpose of this isolator a secret. Then if
somebody does cut off the original lock to switch on, nothing will
happen. Then they can go and find the electrician and take a bollocking
for ignoring the sign.
Finally, if this switch needs to be operated morning and night and
dozens of people have they key, why is it locked at all?
Psychologically, you would be better to ditch the existing lock
altogether and just use a lock when you are on maintenance. This would
then make it clear that if there is a lock on this switch *at all*, then
today must be a special occasion for some reason.