At what point does health and safety go too far?
Is it possible for Health and Safety to go too far? After all, are we all not responsible for doing everything possible to ensure the wellbeing of ourselves and our colleagues?
You may have read that Fife council has banned their workers from cutting grass on a slope greater than 15 degrees despite the fact that no council worker has ever been injured doing so.
A number of years ago I was asked to sample directly from a wellhead into a piston cylinder.
To do so I was expected to stand on the Christmas tree, hold the cylinder in one hand and open and close the valves with the other.
I won’t tell you where this was but it wasn’t in the North Sea.
Obviously that is being a little lax when it comes to Health and Safety but a balance has to be found.
Every job has inherent risks and dangers and everything should be done to minimise these but I think it is possible to go too far as exemplified by Fife Council.
