I once had a summer job in a factory that processed sheet and coil steel
where the management bypassed all the inhibit switches on the moving equipment which was meant to stop you operating it without the guards in place. The rationale behind this was that it slowed the whole process down and time was, indeed, money. Although this sounds rightly dodgy, all of the workers were complicit in this because they got a percentage bonus based on the tonnage of steel that was delivered per month so they were all up for it. Even when someone lost a finger (no more pinky for him) it was quietly hushed up, he got private health care and a lump sum and the practice continued. Mind you, this is also the same place that let me, a 16 year old, drive a forklift with no licence or training....
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Mon 11 Jul 2011, 10:55, 8 replies)

Christ on a stick!
If they did that where I work, the management themselves would close the place down.

I'm no health and safety nut, but quite a bit of it is simply common sense and there to protect people using machines like these.
(dchurch bah, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 10:58, closed)

There's nothing common about common sense.
That's how the old saying goes, I think?
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:49, closed)

More common than you would think, especially with older machinery in smaller engineering firms
or at least it was, not done any engineering in about 15 years now, but I've used massive decoilers, swage presses and punches that had safety stuff removed because it simply wouldn't work with it on. In fact I used to crawl inbetween the leaves of a 50ton swager which were propped up by blocks of wood to maintain it or get stuck bits of metal out.
Of course there was always big panic when H&S were due.
( Nuisance Value, Wed 13 Jul 2011, 23:45, closed)

Reminds me of the (possibly apocryyphal) story
...from the early days of microwave ovens. A cafe owner thought that it took too long to open and close the doors of the ovens, so removed them and bodged the safety switches shut. So there were several industrial-power ovens running pretty much continuously, under the counter at approximately gonad-height, irradiating everything that came close.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:48, closed)

Dundee, early 80s...
...and it was a chip shop in the Hawkhill. My dad stopped going there when he saw what they'd done to the microwave. A week or two later, the place was closed. The guy that ran it is apparently still around but retired long ago.

It's a Subway now.

(edit: any given story is probably apocryphal, but it seems likely that it happened a lot in the early days of microwave ovens)
(gordonjcp, Mon 11 Jul 2011, 11:58, closed)

If you're in a room with an unshielded microwave oven,
The first thing you notice (after about 15 seconds) is that you don't seem to be able to see anymore. Ever.
( Lord Keeps meaning to procrastinate., Mon 11 Jul 2011, 16:25, closed)

No such thing as a forklift licence ;)

That said, you are supposed to have training before operating them, but there are no legal requirements for a particular type of training, just that your employer deems you competent.

Which is how I've driven some fun machines in my time :)
( Alex Save a Tree, Eat a Beaver!, Tue 12 Jul 2011, 21:19, closed)

A place in Lancashire
'allegedly' disabled their safety switches and a worker was dragged into a plastic-crumbing machine. One, or maybe even both, of the directors were charged with manslaughter.
( His Popiness the Hole Invaded Poland on, Wed 13 Jul 2011, 21:32, closed)