POD Loading

[stewiegriffin]

I work at a Mail Centre that deals with the loading of POD's for placing on aircraft.

Recently we've been immersed in a continuous Health and Safety program at work, and to all intents and purposes it's stuff we all knew.

The irony of this is that we have noticed an immense increase of trays that have to be loaded onto POD's at night time, and reflecting on the H&S "workshops" we brought it to our managers attention and that of the local rep with regrards to the "Kinetic lifting and handling" training we have done in the past years. Most of the staff have back complaints, or wake up with sore backs next day .. and this all appears to be falling on deaf ears.

The union official told us that there would be an "assessement" to figure out a safe way of doing it, but as far as we're concerned there is NO safe way due to the shape of the POD's, and the fact you have to enter them, and further crouching to get to the rear.

Any input or solutions would be welcomed from officials, and also other MC's who deal with POD's.

Many Thanks

[Geordie]

Our mail centre has them as well, and they are as bad as you say.

I think the way its been dealt with here is to limit the time spent in the pods, but this assumes all staff will be there at the time they're due, and many are not.

This leaves the burden on a few, not the many, and therefore doesn't solve the problem - it may do if management ensured that people were in the right place at the right time

[stewiegriffin]

bump . .

[thehappyones]

WHAT ABOUT A BIG POLE TO PUSH THEM IN !!

[Lounge Lizard]

I can't find it now but there's Health and Safety regulations about working in confined spaces.

[Lounge Lizard]

WHAT ABOUT A BIG POLE TO PUSH THEM IN !!

Most of them are too busy working on fruit farms this time of year.

[stewiegriffin]

Well ........... the union offical(s) are "looking into it" for about 3-4 weeks now, so god knows what the HELL they're looking into.

In the meantime, our backs are getting gradually worse every night, nothing done, no-one bothers, typical of this self-centrered company and it's incompetent local reps who word hand-in-glove with management to stem our complaints. The irony of this is that IF we were off sick as a result of this, then we're the ones that would get stage warnings for it, and be liable for the conduct code.

It's a blatant disregard for our safety, and after all the "Safe Systems of Work" bull$hit we've had empowered upon us lately, there's obviously no risk assessment ever been done on the handling of trays etc, into the POD's.

Surely to god some union officlas on here have experience of this ??

[thehappyones]

remember stewie YOU have the right to refuse to do anything that might endanger your or others health and safety,and regards the pods ,what about a solution fom you and your fellow workers,dont moan,be constructive ,iknow that buckie and john mcpaul are activeley looking into this as the trays have increased due to the new layout on the np and as containerisation is the way forwards then its just going to worse so again stewie use your voice mate if your not happy doing it explain why and that should be the end of the matter !!

[thehappyones]

also stewie if you were off sick because of this then im sorry mate but its your own fault ,after this length of time doing the pods and your health is at risk then i for one would not be doing it having done the pods since their inception i know what its like

[Lounge Lizard]

remember stewie YOU have the right to refuse to do anything that might endanger your or others health and safety,and regards the pods ,what about a solution fom you and your fellow workers,dont moan,be constructive ,iknow that buckie and john mcpaul are activeley looking into this as the trays have increased due to the new layout on the np and as containerisation is the way forwards then its just going to worse so again stewie use your voice mate if your not happy doing it explain why and that should be the end of the matter !!

Not so mure a RIGHT to refuse to do anything that might endanger your or others health and safety, more a DUTY to refuse to do anything that .........

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

now just a hypothetical situation for you here, i could be wrong,

if yourself or one of your co workers happened to hurt their back when they were in the pod, if they then happened to lie down inside and found they could not move due to too much pain, i believe the following may happen,
1 First aider would check you out and find that because you were showing signs of a "spinal injury" would be duty bound to call and ambulance
2 When ambulance arrived and the found that due to you location it was impossible to get you onto a scoop stretcher and get you out, they would call fire brigade for assistance
3 30 Minutes later and a session with the jaws of Life, POD would not be "Servicable"
4 Due to "seriousness of incident" H+S Executive Must be called
5 Think you will find that would resolve your problems quick smart