We got sick of false alarms (in the middle of the night) in our cabinet making factory, so we had the smokes changed to smoke beams in half the factory, and then heat wire in the extension. Of course this is something that has to be done by the right people with required consents etc.

We have a similar type of issue. we are considering changing the bottom of our racking into a walkway with racking (needs to be solid shelves) over the top.

Re Culture change. Ouch how do you change anything in that type of environment.
In my opinion if something impacts on safety, raise it a team meeting, bring it up individually with staff directly involved ie forklift drivers loading that racking, and then if someone loads into the racking with an unwrapped pallet it is goes straight to a discipline process.

RE objects in a walkway, management needs to work out why and then fix it.

Go watch some video on warehouse management from Fast Cap :wink:

The forklifts are rated for the work - it is a centre of gravity challenge. — Michelle Gillman

Forklift ratings are usually based on center of load 500 or 600mm from the back rest. for example, we have to use a 4 ton forklift to remove 1.8 ton packs from our containers as the center of the load is 1400mm from the back rest on the forklift. We learnt this the hard way over lock down last year when we suddenly got bigger packs which our forklift couldn't unload! As your load center moves further from the back rest of the forklift, the amount you can lift drops substantially, so you are quite possibly overloading your forklifts.

I would go back to your steel suppliers and come up with a way to be able to safely remove the loads.
I know Aluminum extrusion often comes in on steel frames with rollers underneath that can be rolled out so the Aluminum can be forklifted off from the side or craned off.
You may be able to have some kind of skid plate fitted at the other end so you can lift the front and slide it out.
Be careful about pulling with the forklift. Some forklifts aren't rated for pulling loads with strops etc. fixed to the backrest. You should also be using rated strops as if something snaps it could be like a whip!
Check out how they load the container. YouTube has clips of timber etc being slid into container on a platform they then slide back out. I have always wondered how the guys at the other end unload them - now I know - they have trouble. :-)

We are in a similar situation. We usually run along the lines of self declaration if they have worked in the trade for sometime and run through specific machines as required. otherwise it is a you know nothing till you have been trained.

Drop saws nail guns etc. there can be a lot of variation even between these tools.
A Makita drop saw is different to an Elu or Colt (which shouldn't be used by trade in my opinion:monkey: ) or a battery powered Ryobi.
Nail guns, -Pasalode vs Makita battery powered brad nailer vs Ramset J20. All shoot nails :wink: :lol:

Just some thoughts and another minefield :-)

Why are we still killing our workers at the same rate we have for the last 30 years, — Steve H

Is this the same number of deaths per year, or same number of deaths per capita?
With companies taking the thinking out of H&S by having so much box ticking regulations and processes etc, the average worker feels safe, feels that the company is looking after him/her and that he is in a safe work environment. Any environment can be made dangerous. (drive on the wrong side of the road and you will add to the road toll very soon!) We need everyone to consider their actions or in actions as potentially having serious consequences.

I'm sorry I'm not trying to negate the horror of this tragedy, or the Ports responsibilities, but doing a huge nationwide inquiry will only add more beaurocracy and box ticking. It is the culture of the workers that has to change.

This is something that frustrates me to no end when the main contractor asks for a SSSP for us to do work (as a cabinetmaker) on their sites (so not high risk, and no heavy equpiment). As I see it, whoever is in charge of the site is generally in charge of the safety overall on the site. As a smaller contractor I need their SSSP not them needing mine. I need to know what rules hazards etc are in place on site, not come up with my own plan that is totally different to theirs!
To me they are mostly a waste of time, or not used correctly, or they are not what their name suggests as noted above.

I Don't actually see what difference if they are vaccinated or not . MoH has been clear that having the vaccine doesn't stop you from getting Covid. What it is supposed to do is reduce serious complications. So coworker being vaccinated or not doesn't make much difference, they can still spread covid. Tests have shown that Viral load in Vaccinated vs Unvaccinated is not much different and may even be higher in those who are vaccinated.
The reason the government is trying to get everybody Vaccinated is to reduce the stress on our medical system because we don't have enough ICU capacity. At some stage we are all going to get covid, or else NZ is going to have to be a closed state like North Korea.


As to the mask side of the question, I don't have an answer on how to deal with that one, it comes down to company policies and covid regulations.

Going back a few years and across to Chicago.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Eric_Morse
What did they talk of doing after this murder? Pull the highrise housing down and build low rise housing for state housing. That way no kids can dangle other kids out of windows. But that doesn't fix the root issue.
I work in a factory. Somebody climbs up a stack of pallets falls and breaks a leg. The issue isn't the stack of pallets, its the mentality that the worker had that it was OK to climb the pallets.

The same is at stake here. As people in charge of H & S our job is actually to go back to the root cause.
Lets stop blaming the supermarket. The Ideology that this guy had was the cause of it. Forget whatever aunty J A says.

Please I'm not trying to belittle emotional scaring etc that the victims are suffering with. That is something else we also have to tackle.

To often we are the ambulance at the bottom as has already been mentioned. That is how our society unfortunately is now wired.

Lets look at our society and how we can encourage each other to love others more than ourselves.

Excuse my ignorance but what is a "Manitou"

We have action cards in Lunchroom Minor accident (paper cut etc), a near miss (something fell over next to me), and Hazard (that could fall on me). To be honest I have trouble getting guys to report. They are lazy and its easier to walk away than go and fill in a little card all the time.

Is this in regard to personal devices or company supplied devices?
Isn't it amazing the way guys in a factory can be pulling their phone out every few minutes and then the same guys are uncontactable when they haven't turned up in the morning or have left early and haven't notified management!