Wilde 3 wrote:Why Kerching? I cant honestly believe the management of the company openly stating that they advise employees to do this risking harm to them and potentially a huge lawsuit. This is down to negligence in my opinion
1. You need to know that employers across the land French Connection UK up on employee safety, every day, all the time. Claims arising are almost an industry and it is mainly these that have served to slowly (but very significantly) increase employee safety (insurance premium driven, and an increasing risk assessment culture). I can assure you that thousands of employers ranging from careless through dolt to downright couldn't-give-a-shyite continue to exist and I think always will.
2. The possibility that an employee may be negligent is precisely one a good employer is well aware of, and takes into account.
But if your gaffer says "Do this, but stand at this side, so if it grabs your arm you can hit the stop button" it's all very well for you to be clever and say he was negligent for following the instruction, but it takes some courage to challenge your employer, all the more so in this economic climate, and personally I can entirely understand why someone worried about a risk may opt to shut up and take the risk of injury instead of speaking up and losing their job.
Oh, and it's "kerching" because:
(a) the machine was obviously dangerous in that configuration
(b) the specific risk of what happened happening was as plain as the nose on your face, and worse still, was seemingly specifically known to the employer
(c) it could easily have been eliminated (stop the machine, do your taping, restart the machine).
Open and shut.
Oh, and it fookin well SHOULD be "kerching", to teach assholes like this employer, who pay scant or no regard to the specific regulations they are legally obliged to apply, and thus are happy that their employees should run the risk of injury, a lesson. (And as Mintball points out, in appropriately serious cases, they can be prosecuted too).