My sister sent me this cartoon..... — Sheri Greenwell

She sent me this one :wink:




Nah she didn't, this week's LISTENER :smile:

In Sandra's case, the supply of a bare building to set up for Analytical Testing, the Landlord's responsibly cannot extend to the equipment/processes that the tenant introduces and uses for the conduct of the tenant's business.

There could be an overlap of responsibility where an independent contractor works on the building at the direction of the Landlord, and likewise there are multiple tenancies and shared facilities, for example such as a yard used by several tenants to load/unload trucks.

But the suggestion that a tenant may not use it's own equipment without the Landlords authorization, is nothing short of ridiculous and suggests to me, that the Landlord (or his property manager) has done a cut and paste from their H&S policy and now seeks to retroactively impose it on Sandra's company.

Being a rough and grumpy man with a beard, I'd have a two word response and the second word in the sentence would be "off"

Can you actually ask what an employee's vaccination status is Michael?

I suggest you get some legal advice so the organisation follows due process and doesn't get itself in trouble. — SafetylawyerNZ

That is key advice whenever you are dealing with any employment matter, and to treat all employees equally. So in this case, last month Fred got pinged via E-Road data, but Fred's a great guy and we turned a blind eye to his activities but that Bob, boy we've been hanging out for any excuse to outsource that pointed object.

Running scared after the owners of White Island were charged after WorkSafe's investigation of the eruption, it is a complete nonsense that they control the activities of their tenant directly, they are responsible for providing a property free of unidentified hazards (asbestos roof/ceiling cladding/flooring, dodgy wiring, earthquake proneness etc etc) and that's it.

All they can insist on is that their tenant complies with all legal requirements and maintains the building in accordance with the terms of the lease they have signed. A copy of your companies H&S policy, and agreement that you will advise and consult with them PCBU to PCBU on any matter that affects them should be enough.

The short answer is yes and yes. Yes he knows its monitored and yes the consent is a part of the deal when Bob accepted the vehicle. — Rachael

So no issue that as a part of normal checks and balances his employer has become aware of the company wagon being out and about at odd/regular times during the night. Therefor an informal chat/heads up, along the lines of "hey Bob, some random checks of your company car have shown that it's out and about at odd times during the night, is that something we should be concerned about?" is a fair and reasonable question.

Without knowing whether there is a pattern of the same addresses night after night, or a variety of different addresses and times, you are guessing what the reason maybe, but the times are revealing a potential safety issue simply from the driving while fatigued perspective. And that is quite apart from any H&S issues arising from working while fatigued.

Once you have had the conversation with Bob, you will be able to add the "why" to "when, where and for how long", but so long as you don't prejudge the situation and establish the facts, you can proceed accordingly (and inline with your employment contracts/procedures).

In my egg round truck driver, I solved the problem by figuring out his route/time table, then i appeared at one of his drop off points just after he got out of the back of the truck with some trays of eggs. He was suitably shocked, didn't drop his eggs though.

As the truck was supplied to us under contract from it's owner, I just said, we'll hire the bare truck from here on in and find our own driver. We then told the drivers about the GPS system, and upgraded it so we could message them and they us- whole thing worked so much more smoothly after that.

The company vehicle has E-Roads and it is well known throughout the workforce that E-Roads is monitored on a very regular basis. — Rachael

Does Bob know that, has he acknowledged that he knows the vehicle he drives is being (or may be) monitored? Is there a sign in the vehicle that informs the driver (and passengers) it's movements are being tracked?

Assuming the answers to informed consent are yes, why not have an informal meeting to ask for an explanation. Are the locations always the same?

I had a collection truck once that with one driver would only get one collection run completed a day, previous owner/driver could get 3 done, as could a backup driver. Put a GPS tracker into the truck and found that the problem driver was using it to do his egg round on the side.

Ok, it's Frivolous Friday, we're in lock down so a lot of us are under house arrest and working from home. This means a lot of different things, but one thing it does mean, today is also Daffodil Day and the Cancer Society can't do it's usual fund raiser.

ANZ have set up a digital daffodil that you can use to do this, if you do,they will also add a dollar for every one that you give, I understand that a third party will also do a dollar for dollar donation, so give a buck, and The Cancer Society gets three.

So given that one in three of the folk that read this will be told that they have some form of cancer or another and may be grateful for the service TCS provides, or to be told that their cancer is treatable thanks to some research that TCS has funded, it falls into the good idea category to donate some dosh.

https://www.anz.co.nz/promo/daffodil-day/donate/

https://www.anz.co.nz/content/dam/anzconz/documents/hosted/Daffodil-Poster-colour.pdf

And since it's Frivolous Friday

We are not open to the public. — robyn moses

Unless you are open to the public, up to your risk assessment whether masks are required. Depending on what you do and layout of premises, maybe a work bubble setup might make sense, so if a team member tests positive, then only their "work" bubble would be required to isolate

Alert Level 4

While at Alert Level 4 the use of face coverings is mandatory for all employees and customers at businesses and services that are open to the public. This includes supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Face coverings remain mandatory:

• on public transport and at departure points, eg, train stations, flights and bus stops
• in taxi or ride-share vehicles (drivers and passengers).

We encourage you to wear a face covering and keep 2 metres distance from others when leaving your home. Especially if it is difficult to maintain physical distance from others.

Current exemptions for face coverings include for people aged under 12 or with illness, conditions or disabilities that make wearing them unsuitable.

Continue to also practice these basic hygiene measures.

• Keep your distance (2 metres in public) from other people.
• Clean your hands often.
• Sneeze and cough into your elbow.
• Keep a track of where you’ve been and who you’ve seen (use the NZ COVID Tracer App).

More here from Worksafe

Masks are intended to try and trap exhaled droplets from a carrier of the virus, and prevent anyone one not infected, from inhaling droplets, if the mask you are wearing isn't doing it's job maybe look at the fit, mask type and see what options exist if you need to wear one

Sounds good to me Keith.

And of course we need to take into consideration how people learn new concepts, skills etc and present the material in a way they can absorb, retain and then use it in the way we intend.

When i was conducting training, all the important concepts would get both a verbal and written explanation, accompanied by pictures, diagrams, video and if at all possible some hands on.,

The floggings will continue until morale improves



Working from home doesn't mean your performance appraisal won't take place

Another option could be look to replacing hand powered pallet lifters with battery powered versions, these would allow for variations in operators fitness/strength and size.

These take up a bit more space, wider aisle widths to compensate for their extra overall length, and for maneuverability, but the gain would be the additional weight they would allow to be moved- talk to your materials handling equipment supplier and see what they have in the way of options.

Sounds like it's all good,Sheri

The tally plate on an appliance is the little sticker/metal plate that lists what voltage the appliance is safe to use on, it's rated demand (in Watts or Kilowatts), sometimes they will list what Standards the item complies with, if the item is Double Insulated it may say that, or have the Square within a square symbol that indicates it is constructed that way, and if it has an Ingress Protection rating (IP Rating).



This is a tally plate fitted to an RCD plug, if you look at it, starting at the very top there's a note from the maker to any one testing this item to perform a reduced voltage insulation test.

• The plate states who made it : Arlec
• Safe operating voltage :230-240 Volts at a frequency of 50 Herzt
• The current rating, on this item it is the current it can safely carry: 10Amps/ 2400Watts
• The next line tells us this RCD will trip (open) with a current differential of 30mA (30 thousandths of an Amp)
• The next line tells us what this items Electrical Approval number is:ESO120688
• It tells us this item is for indoor use only
• The two symbols at the very bottom tell us that this is a type A RCD (required in NZ for personal protection RCD devices, and the second symbol indicates that it complies with NZ electrical requirements C tick symbol

And a legal requirement to be regarded as "electrically safe to use" under Reg 23 a

Looks like a pro job Sheri, I like the idea of charging EV's outside. While the chance of an issue while charging is very, very low, nothing like taking precautions.

Is there a tally plate on the charger? If it's got a suitable IP rating to be outside it will be fine, I assume he discussed the location with the sparkie that wired it up and the sparkie will have verified the location is OK

Checked your first aid cabinet lately



Consult the folk doing the work before designing procedures they have to follow

Probably going to be load specific Catherine, ie a pallet with 40 X 25Kg bags of plastic resin stretch wrapped is fairly easy to move and keep under control, and stable.

An item of machinery on a pallet that weighs 750Kg, but is top heavy, might be unstable and unable to be moved safely by hand

Warning Signs

Is your electrical safety regime up to scratch?


Don't be a tosser

But, if you're working on EV's then the risk is somewhat elevated of a short-circuit (dropped tools, etc) and potential toxic fumes, etc. — Aaron Marshall

True Aaron, the deluge requirements are going to be extremely high, given the potential fire heat release of an EV vs ICE with the same battery capacity/ and fuel load is double for the EV.

Which indicates a higher fire risk and mitigation efforts required

. It is a much safer arrangement than trying to charge a vehicle by a plug-in charger sitting on a bedroom windowsill overnight, as well as being very conveniently located in the driveway next to the house. — Sheri Greenwell

:up: :up: :up: Probably better charging outside, rather than in an internal garage too Sheri

This article on Stuff indicates what can happen EVs Set Fire To Garage