Backdoor accidents

[tumshie]

You can find order forms for uniform on www.ourtesco.com.

You can print an order form, fill it in and give it to your manager who should pass it on for ordering.

The PPE form includes the following statement :

SAFETY FOOTWEAR
Only for colleagues working on - Backdoor, Scratch Bakery (not Bake-Off Bakeries) , Fresh Food Counters, Food to Go (preparation area), Colleague Room, Trolleys, Dotcom Customer Delivery Assistant and Dotcom Grocery Click and Collect POD

[FarmerFred]

I was originally employed for back door so boots were ordered for me, a couple of weeks later I was informed I was being put on to grocery - the boots turned up next day & was told to hand them back as grocery "don't need them"!  My response was "don't expect me to take any pallets of beer/coke/whatever on to shop floor without a pair of safety boots" - they backed down after that.  In fact I don't even want to touch cages without boots on - the number of times I've seen stuff fall from badly stacked cages I know it's only a matter of time before something falls on my toes!

[Nomad]

I for one would never move pallets or cages without safety shoes/boots.  I like my toes, I've grown attached to them.

[craftyarchie]

I asked our USDAW Safety rep about this as several of our grocery GA's move dollies and pallets, Non Food move pallets and produce move pallets of plants xmas trees etc.  The answer I got was ridiculous.  "As moving pallets & dollies is not a regular part of a GA's job role safety boots are not provided.  Roll cages don't lift from the floor so safety shoes are not required to move them.  As pallets and dollies are only moved occasionally then safety shoes would not be provided." The rep said that it had been raised at national forum and that was the answer given.  I asked at what point did someone on trolleys lift trolleys from the floor, they only roll them so that negated that aspect of the argument and that if there was only an occasional risk of trapping feet under a pallet the severity of an accident should still require the provision of boots.
On a side note does anyone know much a pair boots costs Tesco?  There used to be a price list for buying additional uniform, but I can't find it.

[Loki]

Your Health and Safety Rep is full of s**t. As for the National Forum, I don't think I need to go into detail about my view regarding their role and how pointless they are.

The Provision of personal protective equipment regulations clearly state:

"Every employer shall ensure that suitable personal protective equipment is provided to his employees who may be exposed to a risk to their health or safety while at work except where and to the extent that such risk has been adequately controlled by other means which are equally or more effective."

There are no requirements for the provision of PPE being limited/restricted to a minimum percentage of work undertaken by employees.

In other words, exemptions must never be allowed for those jobs that "only take a few minutes ".

PPE are issued for the job that requires it with no exemption regarding the amount of time spent doing the job.

[craftyarchie]

Full of s**t and as useful as a fart in an astronaut suit.  I just tell the GA's what the risks are and remind them that Tesco won't pay their first three days after they crush their toes.  You can't help those who refuse to listen......

[Loki]

I share your frustration my friend.

[Tenko]

Multi skill relevant ga's, the ones that are likely to move pallets, on the backdoor to enable adequate cover for break times and holidays. They are then entitled to safety shoes. That's what we do on our shift

[Loki]

Exactly!

[Seanmclude]

The price of safety shoes on the screen were less than £10...

[FarmerFred]

It had to happen today of all days after my previous post - without being too specific (you never know who's reading  ), I was involved in an incident where some glass bottles came into violent contact with my feet    I spent quite some time picking shards of glass out of the top of my boots somewhat thankful that I got to keep them!  Had it happened to one of the girlies (or managers for that manner) who run around in silly shoes it would probably have ended up as a hospital case. 

For the sake of £10 per employee I think all shop-floor staff should be issued with them.

[tumshie]

Draw it to the attention of your SM, your safety reps, your forum rep, anyone else you can think of who might be helpful. Stores can provide safety footwear for staff if they want to, even if it is not an "official" requirement.

Also draw it to the attention of those who are working without safety footwear and get them nagging management too.   Best of luck.

[Morris999]

Considering that uniform is now paid for at HO there is no possible reason for people not to have the correct safery equipment!

The first thing we did at my store was re-order new safety clothing/shoes for everyone that needed them or wanted them!

I send colleagues home to get there safety shoes if they have turn up to work without them.

[craftyarchie]

Nice one Morris. A lesson that others should learn.

[Koshb4]

This feels like someone fishing for legal claims - dodgy

[Retailfail]

From an express POV..

I've never witnessed an accident during delivery but have seen more than one near miss in my time. Our deliveries are recieved through the customer car park, the amount of times a customer in a car has darted into a parking space behind a reversing lorry is worrying. We have no cones to cordon off the area which will be inretesting to explain when the lorry eventually does hit one of those cars.

Another problem which is likely to cause accidents is the impatience of SOME drivers. I don't mean to put down drivers and I understand they have a schedule ETC, however.. What is the point of me backing them in if they totally ignore my hand signals, fly back at the speed of sound and use the wall as the brake? Seen this happen DOZENS of times. There is also a reversing sensor on the lorries which is there to brake the lorry in case of the driver not seeing the hazard behind him, however 9 times out of 10 the drivers either disconnect this or put their gloves over the sensor to block it because it makes the lorry reverse very slowly.

My final point, and the one which I believe will ultimately cause injury to somebody, is deliveries showing up when you are 1on1 in the morning/afternoon or whenever. As the shift runner I have to go out and accept the delivery but my CA cannot leave the shop of course as then the shop is completely unmanned. I have recorded this check in the s&l logbook as a red for nearly 8 months now and nothing has been done to make the adjustment so that there are two staff to accept the delivery. What am I to do, turn down the delivery as I have no second person? I can imagine the reaction from my manager if I did that & we didn't recieve our delivery and I know it wouldn't be pretty. In my area the drivers are refusing to set foot off the trucks to help us move heavy cages & RSU etc as there was recently an incident where an employee was injured and theyre blaming it on the driver (have to watch what I say for anonymitys sake).

Anyone else encountered these problems/have any advice? I for one relish the day when a driver says to me he won't do the delivery unless I have a second person. I wonder if that would send the message to everybody that we need 2 people on every delivery. Stay safe during deliveries people.

[tumshie]

I have recorded this check in the s&l logbook as a red for nearly 8 months now and nothing has been done to make the adjustment so that there are two staff to accept the delivery. What am I to do, turn down the delivery as I have no second person?

Have you spoken to your manager about this? If not, then do so.
If you have and nothing has been done then why not tell him/her that you will not be doing any more deliveries on your own, because you are concerned for your safety?

However 'not pretty' your manager's reaction might be, it will be a lot better than you getting an injury that could make you permanently disabled and T*sco refusing to pay sick pay or compensation because you did not follow training.

[Retailfail]

@tumshie I have spoken to them about it but it's the same old spiel 'we haven't got the payroll' etc etc. It's the frustrating argument of 'well I have to do it and everybody else does it' that they use to try and disregard it as a non issue. I know things won't change @ my store, I'm just curious about other express colleagues and if they face the same issues?

[tumshie]

I don't work in express but I'm assuming from your posts that the training says to have two people to take deliveries.

Whatever the situation in other express stores, why are you prepared to risk injury to yourself because of some manager's say-so?

If you tell your manager that you will not do deliveries on your own and then stick to that, what is going to happen? A disciplinary where it will be recorded that you stuck to the training in order to keep yourself safe? Why would you be worried about that happening?

[Retailfail]

Yeah you're correct, two people.

You're right, I will speak to them again, it's so ludacris that it's gotten to this stage. I would enjoy that disciplinary, not sure I could keep a straight face..

[tumshie]

    

[burns2015]

From an express POV..

I've never witnessed an accident during delivery but have seen more than one near miss in my time. Our deliveries are recieved through the customer car park, the amount of times a customer in a car has darted into a parking space behind a reversing lorry is worrying. We have no cones to cordon off the area which will be inretesting to explain when the lorry eventually does hit one of those cars.

Another problem which is likely to cause accidents is the impatience of SOME drivers. I don't mean to put down drivers and I understand they have a schedule ETC, however.. What is the point of me backing them in if they totally ignore my hand signals, fly back at the speed of sound and use the wall as the brake? Seen this happen DOZENS of times. There is also a reversing sensor on the lorries which is there to brake the lorry in case of the driver not seeing the hazard behind him, however 9 times out of 10 the drivers either disconnect this or put their gloves over the sensor to block it because it makes the lorry reverse very slowly.

My final point, and the one which I believe will ultimately cause injury to somebody, is deliveries showing up when you are 1on1 in the morning/afternoon or whenever. As the shift runner I have to go out and accept the delivery but my CA cannot leave the shop of course as then the shop is completely unmanned. I have recorded this check in the s&l logbook as a red for nearly 8 months now and nothing has been done to make the adjustment so that there are two staff to accept the delivery. What am I to do, turn down the delivery as I have no second person? I can imagine the reaction from my manager if I did that & we didn't recieve our delivery and I know it wouldn't be pretty. In my area the drivers are refusing to set foot off the trucks to help us move heavy cages & RSU etc as there was recently an incident where an employee was injured and theyre blaming it on the driver (have to watch what I say for anonymitys sake).

Anyone else encountered these problems/have any advice? I for one relish the day when a driver says to me he won't do the delivery unless I have a second person. I wonder if that would send the message to everybody that we need 2 people on every delivery. Stay safe during deliveries people.

Hi   
Utter Bull what your manager is saying. There must be 2 people at all times. If your in the situation where 1+1 then you should close the store whilst you take delivery in. Then you should email your SOM and APM to say you shut store whilst taking in delivery also cc in you trading law manager . I am pretty confident after that your stores schedules will be adjusted. As for no cones there available to order on C2O.

[troll-hunter]

Question, have deliveries, at some stores, not been turned away because of insufficient staff to unload them in accordance with T's rules and reg's?

[Pathfinder]

In our store if there are not 2 people to unload the delivery they either wait or come back later...it's not unusual to have two deliveries waiting 2 hours for staff to start.

[expressor]

Same here - if there's not two people it will just sit there until help arrives. What's the point - even if it was unloaded there is no-one to work it and it will just sit stewing nicely in the sun as there is insufficient chilled space to hold the cages.