Poppies at work

[egbb saint]

You may remember back in November a pice on South Today about a John Lewis employee at West Quays who was banned from wearing a poppy at work? She now has an on line petition for the government to address this issue.

 

You may want to sign it at http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43263.html

I was number 2074 to sign

[saint boggy]

(not to split hairs) but the shop was Hollister, not John Lewis......

[Viking Warrior]

I have signed no 4000 odd

[georgeweahscousin]

Signed.

 

What possible reason would an employer have for this?

[Hatch]

Signed.

 

What possible reason would an employer have for this?

 

because they have to draw the line somewhere, and presumably in this case they have decided to have zero tolerance.

[Secret Site Agent]

As someone who served my country, (and fought for the men beneath me, some who never came back) I wear mine with pride to remember those that I know who lost their lives. And it is a big thing in construction as well, in my experience, as many wear them, and friendly question those who don't, (respecting their right not to wear one). But I believe that to get rid of this nonsense the Government should legislate.

 

By the way, do you know it is an offence to not educate your employees on the Health and safety at work act? I say this because, being the pedantic big ego head that I am who has recently involved, not directly, in the aftermath of the issuing of a Prohibition Notice to an EMPLOYEE by the HSE, I enjoy the following.

I refer in the following example in a London Borough:

Lifeguard type person: You can't wear them goggles in the pool.

Me: Really. Why is that?

Lifeguard type person: Health and Safety

Me: Which is it?

Lifeguard type person:Health and Safety.

Me: No It can't be both. Not many things are both. So which is it? A Health risk, or a Safety Risk.

Lifeguard type person:I told you it's Health and Safety. If you do wear them, i'll get you thrown out.

Me: No, i'm sorry. You don't seem to realise. Now, wearing the goggles may constitue a safety risk. and I'm all for that. But I can't see them wearing them causing me health issues in the future.

Lifeguard type person:There you go. Safety risk.

Me:As they constitue a risk, there must have been an assesment on them. And as you have a complete lack of knowledge, this worries me even more. It is my duty to infom the HSE about the current disregard of legislation or the lack of basic understanding. I'll tell you what. You go and get you manager, and I'll contact the local HSE inspector. Then we can sort all this out.

 

Working with the Health and Safety at work act, among others tedious bits of legislation, and having contact with the HSE i fully know that they are ****ed off with the 'H&S brigade' jumping on things that they have no idea about and reporting in the press that it's the HSE responsible for banning this and that, when it isn't. They even have a 'Myth of the Month' on the HSE website that shows what a nonsense these press report really are. I have contacted my daughters school several times over stupid issues because they don't understand the basic concepts of keeping people safe. God, i'm on my soap box now.

Edited 8 March, 2011 by Secret Site Agent