Sensory elements such as smell and heat now feature in immersive technologies for safety training. The author reports on their impact and test-drives one of them.
It's an understandable desire; a strong safety culture takes a weight off the shoulders of an OSH practitioner because safeguarding themselves and others becomes every worker's concern and helps make poor risk control exceptional rather than a constant fear. (When the management guru Peter Drucker famously said culture "eats strategy for breakfast" he was only stating the fact that things as they are usually trump things as you would like them to be.)
The ruling on 5 December, which dismissed a judicial review brought by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), is a blow to gig economy campaigners seeking union recognition rights and workers' rights such as sickpay and paid holidays. The High Court upheld a previous judgment by labour law body the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) in November 2017, which had confirmed that the food courier's riders were self-employed.
“The use of PPE must not increase the overall level of risk,” says the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance (L25) on the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations, “ie PPE must not be worn if the risk caused by wearing it is greater than the risk against which it is meant to protect.”