there was another fall at weatherwise's head office in chester on tuesday the 21.07.09,the companys health and safety manager ask an agency worker to climb up the racking to get a reference number from a pallet when the worker pointed out there was no access equipment and the forklift truck was being used the health and safety manager then instructed him to climb up the racking which is 2.5m he did he then reached out to grab hold of the pallet the piece of wood came off and he fell backwards,i am waiting to hear how he is and what injuries he has sustained i have been banging on since january about this company to the HSE but they just won't heed the warnings.

"The health and safety manager then instructed him to climb up the racking which is 2.5m"

This instruction alone would indicate to me that the H&S Manager is incompetant but, at the same time, the Agency Guy should have refused point blank to expose himself to such a risk?

Work-related injuries to self-employed people on your premises, and near miss incidents that occur on your premises, must be reported. Just call the Incident Contact Centre on 0845 300 99 23.

If you are working in someone else's premises and suffer either a major injury or an over-three-day injury, then the person in control of the premises will be responsible for reporting, so, where possible, you should make sure that a) they know about it - All they have to do is call the Incident Contact Centre and answer a few questions about the incident.

Or b) do it online yourself - https://rweb1.nbapp.com/hse/riddor.nsf/F2508DO?OpenFrameSet

Whilst I fully appreciate the precarious situation we are all having to deal with in today's very iffey financial climate, there's no excuse for so-called H&S Managers, 'knowingly' submitting anyone to a risk situation.

Get on line or on the phone my-man.

Regards

MVM

I am no health and safety manager but even I know that this request is nothing short of criminal. We have developed a wide range of safe equipment management systems, providing basic inspections for equipment such as racking, ladders, forklifts, scaffold, MEWPs etc which are intended for use by smaller companies who are after the quickest, easiest and cheapest solution to inform their employees what they should be checking for in the equipment. On our racking system guidance we state in bold capital letters NEVER CLIMB ON RACKING. Surely it is common sense that someone should not be doing this, but we added it on as a reminder (it sounds like it was a justified addition on this evidence). Once the incident details become available I will add a reference to it on our blog to help highlight the need for such inspection systems in the workplace. You can find more info on this range at www.goodtogosafety.co.uk

I would suggest that if it was me advertising sticky labels on this forum, I would at least be shown on my avatar wearing (in bold capital letters), MY SAFETY HELMET when inspecting a scaffold or any structure above shoulder level.

That particular requirement has been around since.. 1983?