On 9/10/2015 4:06 PM, Jon Anderson wrote:

Jon
welcome o to the world of work health and safety in Australia .
It's way over the top regulated by people who have no idea about working
in the real world .

Until recently I was employed on a Defence establishment here and the
WHS there is regulated by Comcare a branch of the Federal Govt .
Thier inspectors came into the machine shop and ended up closing it down .
They wanted a guard around the cutter spindle on a manual milling
machine , dead stop foot switches for the pedestal grinders , the work
shop manually operated press fully guarded and a stack of other
rediculous things.
I questioned the inspectors as to thier experinece in a machine shop and
both admitted they knew nothing about operating any of the machinery or
had the knowledge or training to do so.
All of thier wants came out of a WHS safety manual that they were
porting around obviously written by some one with the same knowledge and
skill level as the two inspectors.

Eventaully we got all of the stuff done , the spindle guard for the mill
is only used when the inspectors are around , the grinder foot control
off switches are not dead stop but can be used to turn off the machine.
( imagine what a 14" griding wheel would do if it came to a dead stop
from full speed).The press has guards which need to be removed before it
can be safley used.

Yes we are now under the control of the WHS stazi and all it does is
cause frustration and drives the cost of making any thing through the
roof.





From summer 1974 through 1976, I worked at NASA Ames Research Center,
high school and college work exp. I had a US Federal Government drivers
license for light truck and forklift to 5t.

In every other job I held in the states, I was merely asked if I could
drive a forklift, or it was just assumed I could.

Drove around at work here a good 8 months before someone thought to ask
me if I held a NSW forklift drivers license. Was told it was an on the
spot fine of several grand for me, even more for my employer, if Work
Cover happened by and asked for a license I couldn't produce!
Having been bought by a large AU corporation, things like this are being
cleaned up, and most of us that didn't have one now do.
Made me curious though, how many states in the US issue forklift
licenses? I'd never heard of any. Oh, it comes under the heading of
High Risk Work here and can cover a number of things like cranes, etc.

Related, I have tickets (certificate) now in Work, Health, Safety;
Confined Spaces; and next weekend, will get my Working at Heights
ticket. Will be getting Cert 3 in first aid and another ticket for
emergency response team.

Again, don't recall hearing of any such things in the States, outside
of levels of training for first aid. Mostly worked in small job shops
though. So, are these sorts of tickets/certs common in large companies
there?


Jon