On Friday 15th Dec at the end of my third week with a new compnay (in a new production manager role - reporting to the bsuiness manager / owner - its about a 25 employee business) while walking in the warehouse I noticed that an older section of pallet racking at the back of the warehouse was not bolted to the floor. (It was not bolted down at all (about 42 feet should have had 2 bolts into the conrete per foot) – and also had pallets in the bays exceeding the rated bay capacity) – The pallets weighed 1600kg and the bays were rated at 1300kg. The bays are about 6m high and many of the pallets are stored near the top of the racks. I immediately called a racking supplier to get the holddown bolt specs and he advised me to address the issue immediately stating the critical nature of the situation.
Some of the the racks are not against a wall and a machine and factory workers are in the area immediately behind the racking. There is a major risk of the racks toppling if a forklift operator makes a mistake loading or removing a pallet on either the fork or worker side. Note a number of forklift operators also do not hold forklift licences and I had also sent an email on Friday morning asking a co-manager of workers who work remotely but load goods in the factory each morning onto company trucks to ensure only licensed forklift operators use the forklifts and to nominate those who may need to undergo training. I had asked one factory operator who I had seen on a forklift to not use it as he informed me he did not have a licence. Other workers have also told me the manager has asked them to overload company vehicles saying he will pay the fine if they are caught. I advised them not to do so.
I had raised general concerns about adequate licensing with my manger earlier in the week and the manager said he was happy to get people ticketed and I was gathering info on courses already.
I took the decision to immediately buy the hold down bolts and install them to the in situ racking. I could have completed most of it within the day. The scope of this work was entirely within the scope of my role within the business. There was not an ideal drill in the workplace so I bought a suitable drill bit with the fasteners and borrowed a construction drill to install the anchors.
On return to the office I was pulled aside by the business manager who asked what I was doing and why wasn’t I processing urgent purchase orders? I said I had identified a major OH & S risk and was taking steps to rectify it immediately. He then became very agitated and said it was not my concern and I needed to be processing orders. I insisted as the responsible manager for the area it was very much my concern and I was going to fix it before doing anything else. I reminded him that under OH & S law he and I were responsible for factory / warehouse safety.
In a very heated manner he then said no and he then said I was no longer responsible for the factory / warehouse and that I was to go back to my desk and immediately start processing purchase orders. He said he would manage the warehouse and fix the racking.
He then later sent an email to me (copying in several other employees) informing me that purchasing was my priority and he would consider production manager duties once he was satisfied I could process orders adequately. He did not call me back into the office to discuss this in anyway. The change in duties constitutes a significant demotion.
He then also said that a design engineer (who works from home for the business in another state) was my supervisor (and this had been the case since starting employment with the firm 3 weeks prior - but this had not been made clear to me for which he apologised) - This had clearly not been the case and in my letter of offer it clearly states that I report to the business manager / owner. I simply processed orders for the rest of the day and left work at the normal time.
Please note I have a degree in industrial management and 25 years experience in both large (multi hundred of millions turnover) as well as small businesses. In most businesses I have worked if I came across a serious safety issue anywhere in the business and was found to have not taken immediate action to address the issue I would have possible been counselled or even stood down for not addressing it. Here I have been stood down for attempting to the issue.
Note I have checked my employment contract and it states under ‘Change of role and duties’ – ‘The nature of your role, duties, levels of responsibility and reporting lines may be changed during the term of this agreement at the discretion of your employer’ - OK but what has happened here is surely not in the spirit of that section.
I feel I need to respond to the email soon this week about the change of duties and the demotional nature of the email but I am not sure how to proceed and what sort of legal advice may be prudent to seek at this time. I am unsure of how I would like to proceed
Could someone please suggest a path for me to pursue in this case. It has significant elements of OH &S compliance, workplace bullying and unfair dismissal.
Thanks
Some of the the racks are not against a wall and a machine and factory workers are in the area immediately behind the racking. There is a major risk of the racks toppling if a forklift operator makes a mistake loading or removing a pallet on either the fork or worker side. Note a number of forklift operators also do not hold forklift licences and I had also sent an email on Friday morning asking a co-manager of workers who work remotely but load goods in the factory each morning onto company trucks to ensure only licensed forklift operators use the forklifts and to nominate those who may need to undergo training. I had asked one factory operator who I had seen on a forklift to not use it as he informed me he did not have a licence. Other workers have also told me the manager has asked them to overload company vehicles saying he will pay the fine if they are caught. I advised them not to do so.
I had raised general concerns about adequate licensing with my manger earlier in the week and the manager said he was happy to get people ticketed and I was gathering info on courses already.
I took the decision to immediately buy the hold down bolts and install them to the in situ racking. I could have completed most of it within the day. The scope of this work was entirely within the scope of my role within the business. There was not an ideal drill in the workplace so I bought a suitable drill bit with the fasteners and borrowed a construction drill to install the anchors.
On return to the office I was pulled aside by the business manager who asked what I was doing and why wasn’t I processing urgent purchase orders? I said I had identified a major OH & S risk and was taking steps to rectify it immediately. He then became very agitated and said it was not my concern and I needed to be processing orders. I insisted as the responsible manager for the area it was very much my concern and I was going to fix it before doing anything else. I reminded him that under OH & S law he and I were responsible for factory / warehouse safety.
In a very heated manner he then said no and he then said I was no longer responsible for the factory / warehouse and that I was to go back to my desk and immediately start processing purchase orders. He said he would manage the warehouse and fix the racking.
He then later sent an email to me (copying in several other employees) informing me that purchasing was my priority and he would consider production manager duties once he was satisfied I could process orders adequately. He did not call me back into the office to discuss this in anyway. The change in duties constitutes a significant demotion.
He then also said that a design engineer (who works from home for the business in another state) was my supervisor (and this had been the case since starting employment with the firm 3 weeks prior - but this had not been made clear to me for which he apologised) - This had clearly not been the case and in my letter of offer it clearly states that I report to the business manager / owner. I simply processed orders for the rest of the day and left work at the normal time.
Please note I have a degree in industrial management and 25 years experience in both large (multi hundred of millions turnover) as well as small businesses. In most businesses I have worked if I came across a serious safety issue anywhere in the business and was found to have not taken immediate action to address the issue I would have possible been counselled or even stood down for not addressing it. Here I have been stood down for attempting to the issue.
Note I have checked my employment contract and it states under ‘Change of role and duties’ – ‘The nature of your role, duties, levels of responsibility and reporting lines may be changed during the term of this agreement at the discretion of your employer’ - OK but what has happened here is surely not in the spirit of that section.
I feel I need to respond to the email soon this week about the change of duties and the demotional nature of the email but I am not sure how to proceed and what sort of legal advice may be prudent to seek at this time. I am unsure of how I would like to proceed
Could someone please suggest a path for me to pursue in this case. It has significant elements of OH &S compliance, workplace bullying and unfair dismissal.
Thanks
