Leathermans tool banned at mine site

[mrghia]

I know they are not the safest knife that why the company gives every one the duck knives, I use them to but I and a couple of other operators need the Stanley knife for some jobs. I don't know where the guy got the knife from but if he had the knife you would of thought he would of thought he could of used it properly?

[mondo_broady]

Originally Posted by au3xr6

A lot of mines now only allow stanly type knives that have auto retract blades . makes stripping cable a real pain

we have to have a ticket to operate a stanley knife...

one of the boneheads knicked a high pressure hose cutting a rope and almost blew his head off so they banned the knives at first and then issued "licences" to us tradies so we can use them. they have to stay in ou rbags till needed, then put straight back once finished...

[XR Martin]

This rubbish has nothing to do with employee safety and everything to do with insurance companies. Their purpose is to do everything in their power to prevent the handing over of compensation.

[Serial_Fool]

I guess I should be in prison for carrying this around day to day.

[DJR-351]

Originally Posted by mondo_broady

we have to have a ticket to operate a stanley knife...

one of the boneheads knicked a high pressure hose cutting a rope and almost blew his head off so they banned the knives at first and then issued "licences" to us tradies so we can use them. they have to stay in ou rbags till needed, then put straight back once finished...

How long is the training course....??

[WMD351]

Charles Darwin never envisaged this.

[Giant Cranium]

ive just gone through retraining for a stanley knife. on tuesday whilst cutting the outline of a hinge on a door jamb i slipped (whilst cutting away from my self and 2 hands on it) i somehow managed to get my index finger in the way and skinned it along the side to the bone. not fun. most dangerous tool but **** happens and we get hurt.

[mistermxer]

Originally Posted by 56L

Some underground electrician cut himself whilst using a leathermans tool and now we all had to sign off on the banning of leathermans tools on the whole mine site,above and underground.

Some guys are devastated as they loved their leathermans tool LOL

most coal mines don't allow knives full stop. they have "industrial shears" instead (over engineered kitchen scissors....)

i have worked with a guy who says a sharp Stanely knife is the most dangerous knife around... and he said that after he cut himself with his brand new blade, he did not how ever mention anything about the fact that he was cutting towards himself thus when the blade slipped it cut him...

it's people like this that make these knee jerk reactions happen. i have not once cut myself with a stanely knife and i have cut and stripped quite a few cables, and big ones at that ! although, i do use a "safety knife" i hate the 'normal ones' because i am too lazy to retract it every time, and i have just gotten used to how to use the "safety style" ones..

[mr smith]

Problem exists because if you stuff up at home you ware it, do it at work and you get compensation and a whole heap of laws kick in. I'm all for robust OHS laws, but I do feel it has reached a point where its getting silly. We have processes for opening doors and walking through foyers. Taking it to far undermines the whole safety message and turns people off.

[mistermxer]

Originally Posted by XD 351 Ute

Cement Australia is the latest to get on the downward travelling common sense train.

Luck for them I have a hammer and a short temper.
Failing that, I will try cutting anything with an oxy.........

Ed

Cement Australia... i "worked" for them... till they closed the place..

[J.C.]

Be lucky to be able to use a steak knife in the cribroom. According to policy and procedures at the site I work on, your not supposed to, so cutting up last nights left over T-bone or slicing an orange into quarters is becoming a thing of the past as they want you to do it at home. Ridiculous.
We are human beings. We make silly mistakes and slip up. Simple. Anyone here that thinks otherwise is kidding themselves or lives in a cardboard box and never leaves.
How about handtools like spanners. I required them as tools of trade to perform repairs and maintenace. I've slipped off bolts etc, pinched fingers, busted nails, cut myself on sharp egdes all because I couldn't see the hazard or read the furture. Stuff happens. I don't see hand tools being canned now do I. I have all my fingers and toes, albeit a few battle scars, but still after 25 odd years in the trade etc, I'm still aware of what may occur. Why? Like a child, you learn from your experiences and the experiences of others.
The worst thing about such knee jerk reactions are the likes of the rescue personal. Part of their tooling is a sharp knife that, in the case of an emergency, they can cut rope, belts etc as required. I'm not sure to be honest what they are doing in this case now. I shook and turned my head in disbelief a long while ago at the silly reactions that come from the safety departments with no input from or thought for thoses that it truely affects, the people doing the tasks. The most these people would have happen to them in a day would be a paper cut or a printer jam (or maybe a stapler just losing it and punching out two staples at the one time. Tragic stuff).
Zero Harm. Is it possible? Yes. Is it realistic? No............. or maybe it is........ if we all go to work wrapped in bubble wrap and surround ourselves with barrier tape, then tag ourselves out with an "Out of Service" tag and not move from that stop for the full 12hrs.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all for a safer work environment, but of the things that they are come out with nowadays is silly.
We are breeding idiots who cannot think for themselves and my experience over the last few years looking in is that our younger people are hurting themselves doing the simple stuff at home. Why? Because no one told them how to do it and they didn't have a procedure.
Go figure. What ever happened to comment sense?
That's just my two cents.

[bob^]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Same goes for any of the Ford factories, must have auto retracting blade because some moron cut his finger.

The sparkies used to be exempt from that until another moron cut his finger recently. Then they did a total ban.
Try stripping a cable with an auto retracting blade - it's even more of a hazard.

[mistermxer]

Originally Posted by bob^

The sparkies used to be exempt from that until another moron cut his finger recently. Then they did a total ban.
Try stripping a cable with an auto retracting blade - it's even more of a hazard.

i beg to differ, auto retract is all i ever use. i prefer it personally. but that's all it is, a personal choice, just cause i'm too lazy to retract it and i would cut myself if i left it open in a EWP with a bucket load of stuff in the basket... but that's why i use the safety type, common sense..

[fangq]

Originally Posted by XD 351 Ute

Cement Australia is the latest to get on the downward travelling common sense train.

Luck for them I have a hammer and a short temper.
Failing that, I will try cutting anything with an oxy.........

Ed

The smart thing would be for someone to get an infected paper cut from handling WHS induction notes....

Steve

[XARATE]

Im going to get flamed for this but why would anyone use a knife to strip wires? Im an auto elec by trade and have never used a blade of any kind for stipping wires. I use side cutters or proper wire stipers.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by XARATE

Im going to get flamed for this but why would anyone use a knife to strip wires? Im an auto elec by trade and have never used a blade of any kind for stipping wires. I use side cutters or proper wire stipers.

knife??.. side cutters..?? i strip wires with my teeths.......

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

knife??.. side cutters..?? i strip wires with my teeths.......

I tried that once, never again LOL.

The feeling of copper dragging along my teeth was freakin horrible, it hurt like anything.

[J.C.]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I tried that once, never again LOL.

The feeling of copper dragging along my teeth was freakin horrible, it hurt like anything.

Man, you're lucky you didn't report that. Safety department would have had your teeth removed for sure.

[Jestr75]

Last year a mine site I was on banned cutting discs on angle grinders because someone cut themselves with one. Mean while one of their sister sites banned Oxy torches because some one burnt themselves. Made it pretty hard to do my job. Created more hazards than it solved.

[tex]

These mine ohs people need to spend some time touring a commercial seafood processing operation, or a boning room.

Ive carried a spider co for 20 years. Worked in processing operations for over 10, aquaculture and commercial fishing for more than that.

And cut myself many times.

It happens. But will i hide from a bade?

Of course i bloody wont.

Nore will sharp things ever be banned from the workpace in those afforementioned industries.

[mistermxer]

Originally Posted by XARATE

Im going to get flamed for this but why would anyone use a knife to strip wires? Im an auto elec by trade and have never used a blade of any kind for stipping wires. I use side cutters or proper wire stipers.

i'm going to assume your have never worked with XLPE's, steel wire armored, screen data cable... try do that **** w/o a knife.

[56L]

another thing i forgot to mention,once a job has been completed with a angle grinder the blade has to be binned no matter what condition,all cutting jobs must be started with a brand new blade

last weekend our crew had to stop work because we had no hot work permit for a 2 minute job,no one at the mine authourised to sign it on saturday so we just sat there for te whole day

[XARATE]

Screened data cable yes, the other two no

[mistermxer]

Originally Posted by 56L

another thing i forgot to mention,once a job has been completed with a angle grinder the blade has to be binned no matter what condition,all cutting jobs must be started with a brand new blade

f u c k the what ?

[05_ENFORCER]

Originally Posted by mistermxer

i'm going to assume your have never worked with XLPE's, steel wire armored, screen data cable... try do that **** w/o a knife.

I used to use Jokari cable sheath strippers along with the side cutters for stripping the inner cores, then pin crimpers for the pins.

I have also used the non retractable Stanley and have never cut myself with an open bladed cutting instrument during work.

I have been a sparky in the mining game (still am but now in a superintendent role) both above and U/G since 1991 and I am still alive and ticking

.

[mondo_broady]

Originally Posted by DJR-351

How long is the training course....??

5 min talk, sign a bit of paper...

i've cut myself twice with a stanley, once to the bone, whilst stripping insulation off cable.

companies have to show they have a system of improvement with regards to OH&S, that's where a lot of these things come from. stuff also gets handed down from the authorities. for instance, inspectorate dictates we have seatbelts fitted to the rear of our transports (troop carriers). i maintain that when seatbelts are fitted to cars, a lot of R&D goes into the process. not here, just whack in some seatbelts without testing to comply... i refuse to wear one as i think they will injure me worse than not wearing one.

[XD 351 Ute]

Originally Posted by mistermxer

Cement Australia... i "worked" for them... till they closed the place..

Don't worry, our turn is coming 3 to 5 years thanks to the carbon tax.
They will import clinker & grind it in the mills here.
Apart from that, our maintenance crews are down about 6 blokes, and they don't look like getting replaced, just more contractors...

Originally Posted by fangq

The smart thing would be for someone to get an infected paper cut from handling WHS induction notes....

Steve

We can only wish......

Ed

[Brent]

Its a weird world. Everyone laments the overkill of OH&S even across relatively trivial issues, yet when somebody cuts a finger, first thing that's done is reach for the Workcover form, and the saga begins.

Make no mistake, it is extremely expensive for an employer when people claim Workcover compensation, be it for time off work, medical bills or compensation. Think of Workcover like car or health insurance, the more you claim, the more your premium goes up. Then there's excess payments and various out of pocket expenses for the company. After all that, you get a friendly visit from the Workcover inspector who's attitude of superiority puts the Gestapo to shame. Then you have to find a temporary replacement for the injured employee. Its a very expensive part of any labour intensive firm's overhead costs.

Most companies find little joy in paying OH&S dudes to run around company sites waving the finger at everyone, but it ends up cheaper than paying out when Davo hacks his little finger off due to his own ineptitude.

Don't get me wrong, if an employer is negligent in removing obvious risks that can reasonably be foreseen, and somebody gets injured or worse, then the company deserves the full wrap. Unfortunately though, like most things in life these days, OH&S has been brought down to the lowest common denominator. The fact that somebody cuts their finger through misusing a knife holds no weight whatsoever in court....the mere fact that the employee had ACCESS to a knife means that the fault rests with the employer. Game over. So, what does the employer ask his OH&S guys to do? Yep, remove the knives.

That's it in a nutshell folks, and end result is that the job takes you longer, costs your boss more, your industry becomes just that little bit less competitive on the world economic stage, but then Davo has a reduced chance of cutting off his finger, doesn't he?

[mistermxer]

Originally Posted by XD 351 Ute

Don't worry, our turn is coming 3 to 5 years thanks to the carbon tax.
They will import clinker & grind it in the mills here.
Apart from that, our maintenance crews are down about 6 blokes, and they don't look like getting replaced, just more contractors...



We can only wish......

Ed

so it's true what Brian said happened on his 2nd day down there... "long service leave anyone?"

[mondo_broady]

@ Brent, that's a pretty simplistic way of looking at things mate.

I might moan about it (OH&S), but in my industry, Underground Coal Mining, things are 1000 times safer now than when i started in the mid-80's. For that, I am thankful...