Ignoring Blatant Safety Hazards
- Thread starter TearsInRain
- Start date
i'm a part-time supe on a preload belt
today, we moved some trucks around mid-dayand one of my employees ended up with two trucks that had openings 4in shorter than himself.
i'm not a very tall guy myself and these openings were brushing the top of my head.
after hitting his head 4 times, then complaining of dizziness, he came to me and told me the issue
i immediately ordered a much shorter employee to switch trucks with him
however, my full-time manager was standing right there and overruled me, on the grounds that "it would increase misloads"
i pointed out it was a blatant safety issue, but he ignored this, so i went to the center manager standing 40 feet away and repeated the situation to him.
he told me to do what i thought was best, "but there might be consequences"
undeterred, i repeated my instructions, only to have them shouted down by my co-supe and my full-time again.
we convened off the belt and the in-between-the-lines message i got was that my employee would "have to deal with it" and not to push it "or else there will be consequences"
i went and found the shop steward and told him of the situation so he might be grieving, and i told my employee to call OSHA.
is there anything i can do, without losing my job, or am i basically just a cog in the wheel here?
it just makes me furious because my center manager preaches safety, safety, safety EVERY SINGLE DAY, yet when confronted with a BLATANT unsafe work condition, completely ignores it and even threatens my job
It sounds like your senior management team have hit their heads a few times too many times!
The issue of anyone over 5'10" striking their head on the door openings was covered in our building in the 1980's. After a couple of full time sup's got a headache or nasty gash while training new loaders they got the foam pipe insulation for those cars with low clearance back doors. The insulation goes on quite easily and was kept in the cars in question.
I used it when making pickups at loading docks that were made for trailers. It seemed I would forget when lifting heavier packages off the pallet and I would crack my head. The cushion in the insulation saved me quite a few times.
Famous last words of many a UPS manager/supervisor.
TearsInRain
IE boogeyman
that's how i framed it to them too, i pointed out the regardless of whether they were right or not, if he injured himself and sued the company, we would probably all lose our jobs
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