Skittled
What did the crab do?
Hello all... (please note that this is a long post, but might be interesting if you're interested in the politics involved with being an employee...)
So I figure that my days at my work are limited. Two years in a casual retail position is enough for me, and I hugely respect anyone who's done more than that, too. This is not the only problem my company has , but in my opinion its failing in its duty of care to staff and customers. Dismally.
Last week, we had a TV fall on a kid from about his head height because they were stacked ontop of each other in a precarious form of display. Luckily he wasn't injured (hit his arm, he was in some pretty severe shock, and the TVs were nicely mutilated...) but he was about 20cm from some rather serious head injuries. That got me thinking. What would have happened had he been seriously injured?
I'd have put my senior first aid certificate to use, and hopefully done whatever was needed. Lets say that mum and dad then get a little antsy about their kid having a TV fall on his head and he's now got (hypothetically, but quite possible if you think about the weight of a TV) brain damage in his frontal cortex, and broken shin bones, too(from the TV that was being used as a stand falling on him). So, I do whatever I could but it's obvoiusly not enough, and Matthew ends up with whatever problems. Mum and Dad then sue Woolworths (who own DSE) based on their negligence and the ensuing problems.
Comomn story, you've all heard/imagined it, but the interesting bit starts here. I'm not registered as a first aider with DSE, so any first aid administered is out of my job description: DSE doesn't want to know about it because it entitles me to a payrise (I can't understand why else they shrug it off). Anything I do, therefore, that might cause a problem (ie forgetting quite how to do EAR or CPR or whatever, and not doing it as well as theoretically I could, and therefore little matthew has more problems than he might have) is my responsibility, not woolworths, as they don't employ me to administer first aid. So, after Woolies has paid out mum and dad, Woolies in turn sue me (which, apparently is do-able ("vicarious liability") and has been done before) on the basis that I was partially responsible.
Compounding that, our assistant manager was running the show on this particular sunday. That's a problem because he's not got any OH&S training; he was removed from the training because our manager (who's not there on weekends) was trained, INSTEAD, meaning that noone in the store knows how to fill out the appropriate incident forms (which eventually get used in court, used as evidence).
Officially, we have noone in the store who can deal with any sort of OH&S problem, to any extent, whatsoever.
It's not so much the hypothetical that disturbs me --despite the fact it is quite disturbing-- as much as the fact that looking around there are dozens of breaches of OH&S on the floor, let alone in the back room. As one of my colleagues said; if workcover came in we'd be forced to close the store. Each one of those fire hazards, teetering boxes above head height, unstable shelves, badly designed Television displays, and countless risks out the back for us as staff... each one gives birth to another hypothetical.
So, as said, I'm interested in leaving soon, and I'm a bit of a shitkicker when it comes to things like this. I understand there's a balance between practicality and safety, but this is rediculous. I've pretty much made my mind up as to what I'm going to do, but I'm interested to see what others would do, given the circumstances. Would you write to HR (Responsible for OH&S) telling them of the problems? Would you write to Workcover? A Current Affairs? Or... just quit and leave it at that?
So I figure that my days at my work are limited. Two years in a casual retail position is enough for me, and I hugely respect anyone who's done more than that, too. This is not the only problem my company has , but in my opinion its failing in its duty of care to staff and customers. Dismally.
Last week, we had a TV fall on a kid from about his head height because they were stacked ontop of each other in a precarious form of display. Luckily he wasn't injured (hit his arm, he was in some pretty severe shock, and the TVs were nicely mutilated...) but he was about 20cm from some rather serious head injuries. That got me thinking. What would have happened had he been seriously injured?
I'd have put my senior first aid certificate to use, and hopefully done whatever was needed. Lets say that mum and dad then get a little antsy about their kid having a TV fall on his head and he's now got (hypothetically, but quite possible if you think about the weight of a TV) brain damage in his frontal cortex, and broken shin bones, too(from the TV that was being used as a stand falling on him). So, I do whatever I could but it's obvoiusly not enough, and Matthew ends up with whatever problems. Mum and Dad then sue Woolworths (who own DSE) based on their negligence and the ensuing problems.
Comomn story, you've all heard/imagined it, but the interesting bit starts here. I'm not registered as a first aider with DSE, so any first aid administered is out of my job description: DSE doesn't want to know about it because it entitles me to a payrise (I can't understand why else they shrug it off). Anything I do, therefore, that might cause a problem (ie forgetting quite how to do EAR or CPR or whatever, and not doing it as well as theoretically I could, and therefore little matthew has more problems than he might have) is my responsibility, not woolworths, as they don't employ me to administer first aid. So, after Woolies has paid out mum and dad, Woolies in turn sue me (which, apparently is do-able ("vicarious liability") and has been done before) on the basis that I was partially responsible.
Compounding that, our assistant manager was running the show on this particular sunday. That's a problem because he's not got any OH&S training; he was removed from the training because our manager (who's not there on weekends) was trained, INSTEAD, meaning that noone in the store knows how to fill out the appropriate incident forms (which eventually get used in court, used as evidence).
Officially, we have noone in the store who can deal with any sort of OH&S problem, to any extent, whatsoever.
It's not so much the hypothetical that disturbs me --despite the fact it is quite disturbing-- as much as the fact that looking around there are dozens of breaches of OH&S on the floor, let alone in the back room. As one of my colleagues said; if workcover came in we'd be forced to close the store. Each one of those fire hazards, teetering boxes above head height, unstable shelves, badly designed Television displays, and countless risks out the back for us as staff... each one gives birth to another hypothetical.
So, as said, I'm interested in leaving soon, and I'm a bit of a shitkicker when it comes to things like this. I understand there's a balance between practicality and safety, but this is rediculous. I've pretty much made my mind up as to what I'm going to do, but I'm interested to see what others would do, given the circumstances. Would you write to HR (Responsible for OH&S) telling them of the problems? Would you write to Workcover? A Current Affairs? Or... just quit and leave it at that?
