Leaffan, I’ve never been in that situation, but I agree with Spoons - go get your own safety gear. You’ve got to protect yourself. Plus, you’re leading by example. Talk a bit at break about what a good deal you got at Canadian Tire on the glasses, and how cheap Walmart stuff is, because protecting your eyes and feet is really important. Not lecturing, just coffee talk.
From your position, can you start improving things a bit at a time, like the eyewash station? Not as «that new hire is a troublemaker» but more «that new hire is taking the initiative to fix things up»? You can’t change a culture all in your own overnight, but if you start by getting the eyewash station cleaned and tested so it works, that won’t cost anything. And better sign-in, sign-outs, again, wouldn’t cost anything. And if someone grumbles, just smile and say «Safety. I want us all to leave the plant safe and sound every day.» incremental changes may be the best way, and once you’ve done low-cost things and you’re working well at the place, then maybe work on getting some of the bigger things done. After probation.
If there’s a lot of long-service people there, it must have advantages as a work place.
I don’t have a strong opinion (being in construction where all this stuff is aspirational on the small scale), but I will say that in the US gear you are required to buy for your job is (kinda) tax-deductable, and safety-toed shoes can be had under $100 and safety glasses usually are under a buck if bought in multi-packs. I agree that the main way to get compliance from the company is to prove it saves $$$ (or conversely–costs if they have claims against them. That is what gets construction companies to implement).
Not necessarily. One of my duties is being the de facto Risk Manager for my company. I have no way of visiting each of my locations, and rely on the feedback from the heads of Safety in our various office buildings and production facilities. If any of these folks has gone “rogue” and allowed major violations of regulated or company-specific guidelines, I would only find out if an accident created a financial loss, or if my insurance companies raised my premiums as a result of their own inspections or from a claim that was filed. Ultimately these costs hit my performance targets. In fact, I’ve set up a company-wide hotline where any employee can report safety concerns anonymously, in case they fear retaliation from their supervisors.
Sounds like you are in a position to enforce some of these things. Perhaps that’s why they hired you, because the last guy didn’t enforce the rules? I would just play dumb on it and proceed with proper procedures like you’re doing. If you overstep, someone will tell you to back off, I’m sure. If questioned, you can always say “Well, that’s how I understood the job. Was I wrong?”
They should have a program to provide safety shoes, even it the employee has to pay for them out of pocket. That is a red flag. Particularly in a manufacturing environment.
And there are many new types that can look like ordinary tennis shoes that are in fact safety shoes. They have come a long way from steel toed boots.
But people are stupid. We continually need to remind people that just because it is casual dress day does not mean that you can wear flip-flops!
