Day 084 - 07 Feb 95 - Page 34
1
2 Q. What sort of thinking do you do about that problem?
3 A. Over time we have tried a number of different floor
4 coverings. We tried safety shoes. We tried different
5 methods of cleaning the floors, using different solutions,
6 different companies' ideas and recommendations for that.
7
8 Q. Are you still working on it?
9 A. I think we will always be working on it because it
10 still remains as one of the major causes of reportable
11 accidents. Until we see the numbers, sort of, declining
12 almost into non-existence with us, that I think perhaps
13 then we could say we have cracked it and it is not a cause
14 of concern for us.
15
16 Q. One other thing about this chart: We notice just above
17 half way down "manual handling" was a 30 per cent problem
18 in 1991 but by 1993 had shrunk to just over 10 per cent.
19 In the side column it is stated to be 11.33 per cent.
20 Do you know what the reason might be for that reduction
21 from 1991?
22 A. I think so. I think that it was, obviously, another
23 priority behind slips, trips and falls, but it was an area
24 that we could more easily address. As I said before, it is
25 an activity in the restaurant that happens less often and
26 by specific people, and most of those are through
27 deliveries. So, we could target people to train them
28 better and I recollect we had posters and a campaign on
29 manual handling to try to reduce these accidents. So,
30 maybe that is an example of health and safety and
31 operations development working the way that it does in
32 McDonald's, by gathering information, looking at, targeting
33 an area to impact upon, looking at different alternatives,
34 then working out a course of action and then we get the
35 results back to show that that has been successful.
36
37 Q. I was going to ask you: Slips and trips speak for
38 themselves, but what sort of accidents are involved in the
39 definition of "manual handling"?
40 A. I think that is where you may hurt your back by lifting
41 a box incorrectly.
42
43 Q. Do your back by lifting a box, yes. Would it include
44 dropping something on your foot that you lifted up, do you
45 think, or not?
46 A. Probably not. I think that would most likely be
47 "struck by".
48
49 Q. That would be "struck by". Where in all of this would one
50 find the statistics for burns, people who are burnt by
51 something falling on them?
52 A. Burnt by something falling? I would not like to
53 speculate on that one. Maybe a burn would not be a
54 reportable accident, thereby it would not be included in
55 these figures, unless it was very severe.
56
57 Q. I suppose it might be if it was bad enough.
58 A. If it was bad enough, but I think the figures probably
59 suggest that we have, perhaps, not that many burns that are
60 severe. Remember, they would have to have three days off
