Work at height

steve i work ing the working at hieght industry. and always find that listening to the guys doing the job benificial. however i always find it better to do the job myself to understand where they may be coming from.

i would stick with the policy you have as have two gives people the oppotunity to make a mistake like over reaching without a harness could be fatal and you would not want to tell thier family that kind of news

Steve, Go to the HSE website, it will provide you with a wealth of easy to read and use information. When working at height you should use the following tool that the HSE constructed for assessing your needs:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls/wait/wait-tool.htm

I have worked in health and safety for a number of years now and the present industry I work in has this as their highest risk. The WAIT tool will allow you to see what access devices are best and also provides the legislation and guidance to get it right.

Good luck!

Stick to your guns Steve. You're in danger of creating a loophole which everyone will try to exploit.

We also have a harness policy & bump caps are mandatory as well. Some will try to come up with excuses for not wearing the PPE but through consultation over length of lanyard, comfort & fit of harness etc...it can be overcome.

As we also require them to wear hi viz, we eventually went down the route of supplying hi viz vests incorporating a harness. We issued one to each of our maintenance staff so they could adjust it for correct fit.

They're quite happy with this arrangement.

Current recommendation and best practice is that a harness and restraint lanyard should be worn in all boom type platforms, but not necessarily in scissor lift types (as you are obviously aware).

As each job is different, you may find that it is sometimes preferable to wear a harness in a scissor lift and sometimes not at all necessary. This will depend upon the nature of the task being carried out. Can the lift be positioned directly beneath or very close to the job, or will the operative(s) have to reach or lift items outside the basket to carry out the task. This will make a difference to the risk rating as it will increase the probability of loss of balance and a potential fall.

Our policy is that a harness and work positioning lanyard must be worn at all times whilst using any boom type MEWP (except when working near deep water), but need not generally be worn when using a vertical scissor lift UNLESS there is a specific risk to be taken account of (such as reaching and handling items from the basket). What this means is that every MEWP operation must be planned, an assessment carried out, the right type of equipment selected and a safe system of work (method statement) created to address the specific task and associated risks. The safe system of work will instruct the operatives whether they should wear a harness or not.

Blanket policies (harnesses must be worn, or no ladders) can often save time and arguments, but sometimes (as in this case) can cause issues, as anyone who works regularly in a MEWP will tell you that harnesses are restrictive. My answer is that they restrict you from falling from the basket, but if you do need to be mobile within the basket (some scissor lifts are quite large), the lanyard could in itself present a risk of tripping or entanglement.

Suitable and proportionate risk assessment backed up by a safe system of work.

A bit of advise needed.
Even though it is not compulsary to wear a fall-restraint harness in a scissor lift, I have made it our company policy to do so. I have completed a number of risk assessments for specific jobs and no one has had any issues wearing one. Until now. The employee,s involved with the operation in question state that they feel wearing a fall -restraint system for the job in question would not be safe practise has they need to move freely around the scissor lift platform. Is it advisable to have 2 risk assessments for the scissor lift one stateing wear the P.P.E and one stateing that you dont need to wear one.