Going nowhere

Health and Safety gone bonkers?
April 4th 2007

Health and Safety Executives have been banned from moving furniture around their offices in a move which has been hailed as "the nanny state gone bonkers," by one insider, reports the Daily Mail.

Signs on the walls of the London headquarters read: "Do not lift tables or chairs without giving 48 hours notice to the HSE management."

If staff want to move furniture around, to hold a meeting for example, they must book a porter at least two days in advance.

The regulations were picked up on by Labour peer, Lord Berkeley when he was attending a meeting at the headquarters. Lord Berkeley has since raised the matter in the House of Lords demanding to know why the HSE has put the notices up.

A spokesperson for the HSE said its policy for moving furniture in its office is based on its own assessment of the risks from manual handling which it says is one of the main causes of work-related absences among its staff.

But Lord Berkleley said he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the signs: "It's ridiculous to mollycoddle people like that. It's taking health-and-safety precautions to a ridiculous level."

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