MODERN BRITAIN
By David Vance On July 31st, 2012This is the State we have become;
“Binmen have been banned from pulling wheelie bins due to fears they may suffer a back injury. Residents in Newton Aycliffe, Durham have been told they must pull their own bins along narrow alleyways near their homes to ensure binmen do not suffer ‘musculoskeletal injuries’. Householders in the area – many of them pensioners – have expressed surprise at the decision reached following a council risk assessment, highlighting that binmen previously carried steel bins down the same alleys.”
Makes sense, right?
This decision was taken because one of the binmen had, belatedly, learnt to read, and the first volume he picked up at the completion of his studies was that world-famous study of accidents which befell small people whilst at work.
I am of course referring to the Elfin Safety manual.
Better that injuries happen to the oldies than the fit young healthy binmen. After all being old they’re no use to anyone, nobody want’s old people around anyway they are just depressing. Besides they are just waiting around to die anyway, using up precious resources. Probably making a dispropoprtionate contribution to climate change. They are not sustainable and need to be recycled. Maybe we should set up recycling camps for them.
Yep I reckon thats the reasoning behind the councils decision.
Grate Britain strikes again! Far better to spend money on Oly Left wing Multi Culti shows than the oldies. Yayy for Comrade Boyle.
This is learned helplessness. From what I see, it is largely confined to the UK.
But bad ideas do travel, so I imagine that we’ll have this stuff in the US before long.
Are any of your major politicians speaking up against this sort of thing? Or is it just the tabloids?
This isn’t a small matter.
If the binmen try pushing the bins in front of them as they are designed to be moved they wouldn’t hurt themselves ,but that would involve common sense not so common in council departments.
That story was apparently out of date before the belfast telegraph printed it:
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/crook/9833061.Council_s_U_turn_over_Newton_Aycliffe_bin_men_s_alley_ban/
Not that there is actually anything wrong with binmen having safe working conditions, it’s not “learned helplessness” or any kind of bad idea at all.
OK, then this is cool too, right? Best not do anything, since someone might get hurt.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104358/Simon-Burgess-drowned-firemen-refused-wade-3ft-deep-lake-health-safety-rules.html
Phantom,
No it doesn’t mean that is cool. Nor does that mean all health and safety requirements are wrong.
Those wheelie bins weren’t drowning, were they? Did it occur to you that the health and safety assessment might have been right? If it was, would that mean the bin men should just have to suck it up and deal with the injuries?
In other countries, binmen move bins.
Where exactly the bins have to stand is obviously regulated in the contract that exists, directly or indirectly, between residents and the public authority.
As far as I know, binmen are obliged to collect only bins placed in front of houses. If they have been going down lanes to collect, they have been doing so only as a gratuitous service.
In NYC, we have to move our bins/bags/boxes/bottles (sorted for recycling) to the curb. Binmen don’t walk down our alleyways to get garbage. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve been up early enough to watch binmen in England or Ireland while on vacation but last time I looked, the bin trucks were fitted to lift the bins robot-like. NYC garbage trucks require that the bins be lifted and dumped or bags/boxes whatever be tossed in the back. Though I must admit, I’m no expert in the field…thank goodness.
Noel Cunningham -
“As far as I know, binmen are obliged to collect only bins placed in front of houses. If they have been going down lanes to collect, they have been doing so only as a gratuitous service.”
Residents are paying for that “gratuitous” service. Yes, binmen are obliged only to collect from the front of houses, so if there’s a row of houses up a lane then they should walk up it and collect bins.
That’s what they’re paid to do afterall.
Britons have had to fork out a fortune for snazzy bins with wheels so the dustmnan doesn’t have to strain his back, and now they can’t pull the bloody things?!
Rubbish.
If they’re anything like the dustmen round my way, they don’t want to walk up the alley because they want to knock off asap.
OT – I wasn’t sure where to put this but it shows the power of Photoshop and I’m sure that these pics or, at least, the one on the left will be making their way through the BBC and The Guardian.
http://gizmodo.com/5929952/newspaper-uses-photoshop-to-make-syria-even-worse-somehow
I might try this at home.
There may be two issues -
What’s the most efficient way to provide the service
-or-
Are health and safety regs preventing the provision of a service that otherwise would be provided.( what I thought we were talking about )
Moving wheeled vehicles doesn’t sound like the most backbreaking work in the world. This sounds like another step down the road of overprotection and undue concerns about liability in the UK. We’re on the same course to complete helplessness, but you boys are ahead by thirty lengths.
The same thing happens here. There is a designated route, not really a designated number of hours. If its a nice late spring day, our sanitation men start 90 minutes early, work like maniacs, and are home when there’s still time with loads of daylight left.
“Are health and safety regs preventing the provision of a service that otherwise would be provided”
And the answer in this case is no.
Next question.
Hmmm… I thought the example provided by Phantom at 1.31pm illustrates how Health and Safety regulations are preventing provision of an essential service – “learned helplessness” indeed!
Pete 126
Even your ” counter ” story states that the reason binmen were to be moving bins less for was for the old ” health and safety ”
And your 920 was a comment that Bill Clinton would have been proud of in the Monica Lewinsky days. Since health and safety regs did indeed change the service…. until folks complained. And these regs sure as hell did change the ” service ” afforded to the drowning man, as uniformed personnel stood nearby, checking their rulebooks, awaiting permission from drones sleeping at their desks.
Phantom,
“Even your ” counter ” story states that the reason binmen were to be moving bins less for was for the old ” health and safety ””
I posted that not Pete.
And yes the reason was health and safety. And so? If the reason was health and safety that may well have been a good reason in this case. You assume that the risk assessment was wrong and that ALL health and safety regulations never in fact protect people’s health and safety.
Here we have an outcome where the risk for the binmen (assuming there was one) was reduced and the people’s bins are still being collected. Everyone wins and still you are bitching about it.
I meant you.
Not just me. And I’ve moved these things around myself a few times. It was not exactly difficult.
[ You assume]
ALL health and safety regulations never in fact protect people’s health and safety.
I assume no such thing. I’ve defended the importance of OSHA and similar workplace safety organizations multiple times on these pages.
There is a risk to tying your shoelaces in the morning. That doesn’t mean that we should stop doing it, or that binmen should stop moving trash bins, or that highly trained personnel should not try to save drowning people.
John Paul Jones.
You guys are cultivating fear and helplessness. We need you strong and capable. Cut it out.
Phantom,
“Not just me.”
Yes not just you. You and many others who know nothing about it and are completely unqualified to judge.
The whole thing turns on whether there was really a significant risk or not – and you don’t know.
You are similarly ( un ) qualified to judge, and are overly cranky today. There’s no need to make false statements about me being against all regulations. You’re not talking to Pete here, not by a long shot.
But not to worry. The silly decision was overturned and no one’s unhappy about it but you.
You get the last word.
“You are similarly ( un ) qualified to judge”
Indeed I am and if I was the one insisting it was perfectly safe you’d have a great point. But I’m not, and you don’t.
My point all along has been to ask was the risk assessment correct. I’m going to put it out there that the answer matters.
“and are overly cranky today”"
Another thing you are unqualified to judge. I however know that you are no more psychic today than usual.
“The silly decision was overturned and no one’s unhappy about it but you.”
You get this from me saying ‘everyone wins’, do you? Where did you learn to read and how much did they charge you – I hope you kept the receipt. I already said the risk to the binmen, assuming there was one, has been mitigated, and the residents are having their bins collected.
In this case the regulations clearly did not create any major problem, may have averted one as they are intended to do, and the sky is not falling at all.
And by the way:
“And these regs sure as hell did change the ” service ” afforded to the drowning man, as uniformed personnel stood nearby, checking their rulebooks, awaiting permission from drones sleeping at their desks.”
This does not appear to be true.
Several of other examples (all the ones I checked) given in the daily mail story don’t check out either.