Those boots might be made for walking, but are the laces?
Longstanding readers will recall that we occasionally offer a Jobsworth award to recognise the sterling efforts of an individual that has gone beyond the call of duty to introduce or enforce a preposterous rule or regulation, even when common sense dictates otherwise.
We were sorely tempted to bring the award out of mothballs for the Illinois pedant whose insistence upon correct paperwork cost the city (and, therefore, taxpayers) $270,000. But then we heard a rumour about a UK company that had taken health and safety concerns to a whole new level, banning a supposedly dangerous item from their sites.
What is that item, I hear you ask? An assault rifle, perhaps; Chinese throwing stars; rocket propelled grenade launcher?
No. Not even close. The malevolent, accident-causing threat to humanity and life on Earth is…round boot laces.
When we first heard this rumour, we dismissed it as industry legend, a further example of the health and safety gone mad attitude that seemingly prevails throughout industry these days. But, being the fine investigative journalists that we are, we decided to check by speaking directly to Tarmac, the company in question.
And here, verbatim, is their response:
Glyn Williams, Senior SHE Manager for Tarmac National Contracting said: “It is true that in Tarmac National Contracting, we’ve decided to swap round bootlaces for flat ones. This is as a result of discussions with some of our employees as part of an incident investigation, when it was suggested that round laces were prone to come undone more often than flat laces, so we decided to change them. It might sound like a small thing, but, ultimately, we want to ensure our employees’ work environment is as safe as possible and explore every option to ensure this is the case, including how to cut injuries from trips, slips and falls. It’s something that we’ve done within National Contracting, for now, but we’ve shared our findings with the wider Tarmac business, as well as the Mineral Products Association’s Contracting safety committee and the Highways Agency.”
It would be wrong to mock an initiative designed to safeguard workers but, in this instance, it’s hard not to. Surely an easier approach would have been a toolbox talk on the lost art of the double-bow?
And what next? The insistence upon button fly jeans to safeguard against the threat of below-the-belt lacerations from jagged zippers? The enforced removal of employees’ teeth lest they bite their own tongues?
It’s true that Tarmac does operate on the very periphery of the demolition business. But, given the viral manner in which these ideas leap from industry to industry to create a near pandemic, we thought we’d bring it to your attention.
And for April 2012, we hereby name Tarmac’s Glyn Williams as our Jobsworth of the Month.
