Have any flyman sued as a result of developing a bad back?

[theatrcymraeglampy]

Hi all,

 

Am doing a study into H&S in flying, and I was wondering, does anyone know of any case where a flyman has sued a theatre (successfully or unsuccessfully) that they have worked at where they developed a bad back, spine problems e.t.c

 

Or if you have any good ideas......... Haven't contacted the HSE yet, not sure if they would know what I am on about!

 

 

Thanks,

 

Theatr Cymreag Lampy

[Ynot]

Am doing a study into H&S in flying, and I was wondering, does anyone know of any case where a flyman has sued a theatre (successfully or unsuccessfully) that they have worked at where they developed a bad back, spine problems e.t.c

Actually, I would doubt this would happen.

As with all jobs these days, employees should receive training, or provide proof that they are trained for any particular job.

 

With a flyman, they should be able to show they are capable of not only doing the job, but also that they have the knowledge to load and test any flown gear before they lift.

 

If anyone was to injure themselves as a result of failing to follow standard safety proc's then the employer wouldn't necessarily be at fault.

 

Course, that assumes that there are no unscrupulous theatre managers out there...............

[Roderick]

There was a study done in Holland quite a few years ago which resulted in a ban on all manual fly-lines.

I had a quick look but all the stuff is in Dutch I'm afraid.

Maybe send an email to this address: info@arbopodium.nl and see if they can help you.

[w/robe]

There was a study done in Holland quite a few years ago which resulted in a ban on all manual fly-lines.

 

It does not end there, our counterweights are all 5kg due to the lift-twist-extend movement required to load them. Everyone who loads them has been instructed to only load 1 at a time to protect their back.

 

That's 1 at a time

 

ONE

 

Put the other 2 down!

[zonino]

I unfortunately doubt your doubt that it would happen Ynot. then again, I've been in sue-sue happy America for a few months

[Ynot]

I unfortunately doubt your doubt that it would happen Ynot. then again, I've been in sue-sue happy America for a few months

Hmmm....

true - over in left-pond-land it's more likely that there'll be a possible case, HOWEVER, when I say I doubt it (over here in Blighty) I mean that MOST pro venues will have a HASW policy that states what can and cannot be done by employees. Which means that unless an employee goes against the regs (which are normally fairly weighted towards the over-cautious anyway), there shouldn't be an incident.

And if there is, and the employee was NOT following regs, then the case would fail as a result.

 

QED

[Ike]

There is a difference in knowing what you shouldn't be doing and having a practical alternative, in quite a few venues it simply isn't possible to load or unload a counterweight cradle while sticking to their own manual handling training. While I hope nobody would think of taking legal action against their employers unless they were seriously taking the piss and all other routes had be exhausted I can't help but think it will eventually happen if it hasn't already done so.

 

I'm not trying to say counterweight systems cannot be used safely, far from it, I know hundreds are used safely every single day. I'm simply saying that if some greedy unscrupulous employee teams up with an equally greedy and unscrupulous ambulance chasing lawyer then they could probably put together a very good case, hopefully it would fail and they would never work in the industry again but I wouldn't bet on it. :(

 

In case anyone hasn't noticed this topic has touched a nerve somewhat ;)