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ROSS
You make some very valid points.
It is sad that the health and safety aspect was an attempt to make things safer, and to give you a fewv examples as to why health and safety is needed and dont need cutbacks in staff you will see why;
In years gone where i worked an employee was asked to go up on the roof by the employer in heavy winds, now although that person should have said no its to dangerous, most people know in reality the pressure from employers and trying to keep in a job, sometimes blinds the dangers.
This person fell through a very high roof onto a concrete floor now paralised worse his mum was there and saw it happen.
This poor person is now in a wheelchair, and thankfully to compensate a little the union got him za fully adapted house,and some compo, and yes he was wrong to take up he job, but the mangers were seriously wrong for;
1; sending him up there in first place
2; not having checked he was working safely or using safe equiment(manager fully aware he wouldnt be)
3; Manager and the company at first refused to admit any liability!!
4; safety netting that was supposed to stop his fall he bounced off of so was inadequate
Thats why its important to have responsible trade unions
Employee's also need to know under the health and safety at work act 1974 sectio 2
they also have a duty of care to both themselves and others, and whilst I agree health and safety has gone way over the top heres an example ofg bad practice that has gone in the past.
walking down a platform I noticed a platform staff member(i worked on the platform at that time) up a brute that they loaded royailmail bags in, not known for having good brakes on them this person was standing on top of one of these the open side being towards the tracks.
I asked him to come down and pointed out the dangers of falling off the brute, the brute moving, only place if he fell would be to fall on the track!!
also asked him who asked him to do such a job in such a dangerous manner.
Again it was the employer many of whom would turn a blind eye when everything running ok, but when things go wrong thats when they not seen for dust.
So i explained to both the empoyer and employee a safer way of working(long handle brushes working from the platform, not rocket science, of course I was not always around, and i'm sure others can point out many such incidents where they work.
But it moved on and wwe had many building site tradegies through lack of thought on health and safety.
Today, although well meaning health and safety has gone to far the other way,
incidents such as Ian mentions IE goggles and conkers etc is a step to far, but its the culture we have created.
compo claims going through the roof.
play areas being a gd example, sounding old here, but in my day(lol) when you fell off a slide and grazed your knee you learnt not to do it again!!!
not look for who owns it to get compo out of them.
So review yes, but like ROSS says employers and some employees will cut corners and all the time it goes ok then its not a problem, but the one time it goes wrong, you can up like tha poor chap in my first example now in a wheelchair for life.