Sticking to your duties will save your life – Although employers encourage employees to think for themselves, that shouldn’t stop them from applying common sense and abiding by strict company policies. In today's blog I discuss a case where an employee didn’t, which cost him dearly.
A recent incident is a living proof that following instructions has no timing as it is something that should be done all the time. An employee was busy offloading maize from a silo bag. He was using an auger to do so as the work was too much to do manually. While in the process of offloading, he felt the auger was not operating fast enough as he would have wanted it to do so. In his bid to establish what was causing the slowness of the auger he decided to climb on top of the big silo bag and check the auger. As he was not supposed to climb on top of the bag his manager called him down immediately once he noticed the employee having had climbed up. The split second the employee was distracted by the shout of his manager, was enough to loose balance and fall into the maize. The auger, which was still operational, unfortunately pulled his leg which was stuck inside the maize. He suffered serious injuries and his right leg below the knee was amputated as it was the only option possible to enable his recovery.
The whole incident saw a total number of productivity days lost accumulating to 818 days. The TTD cost for the incident was an amount of R 17 153.46 and medical costs added up to R 17390.64. A compensation claim was filed with the Workman’s Compensation Authority (WCA) and the claim was accepted. The employee is still undergoing treatment and the final medical report and resumption is being waited for.
An investigation was launched into the matter. Findings revealed that the employee was not allowed to fix the auger while it was still running. He was supposed to switch it off and report it to the relevant managers who were supposed to seek the services of a professional equipment service provider.
Despite the seriousness of the injuries, management decided to take disciplinary action again the employee. Training was provided for all other employees on the safe use of the equipment and the hazards it is associated with. Safety signs have been put up to prevent a similar incident from re-occurring and to raise alertness of the importance of following procedure.
Training was provided too little too late at this workplace but it will come in handy in ensuring that such an occurrence does not repeat itself in future. This is for the same reason that my colleague Christopher Guy, always emphasis on the importance of constant refresher courses in his blog as they help prevent or reduce cases of incidents.
Employers can also ensure that employees work under the constant supervision. This by far, will ensure employees stick to protocols as they can be stopped from doing an unruly activity.
Employees should be discouraged from trying to fix or check any equipment they feel is under performing. They should be encouraged to report any faulty or ineffective equipment to the managers and they should halt any operation which involves malfunctioning equipment.
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