Butch,
Is the 135 workers killed on the job so far this year in Australia, also a sign of "compliance gone mad". In the mining sector alone 14 workers have been killed, without compliance how much greater would those figures be. Your concern seems to be about "waste and costs" no consideration of workers lives what so ever, they don't rate a mention.
There is always the old employer way of thinking, profits are paramount, safety by all means as long as it doesn't affect the bottom line and get the job done regardless. Industrial history clearly shows that employers treated workers lives as expendable until governments were forced to legislate on issues of safety, maily due to the agitation of unions.

http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/statistics/work-related-fatalities/pages/worker-fatalities

Paul1405: Your concern seems to be about "waste and costs" no consideration of workers lives what so ever,

Paul, I know what the WH& S is supposed to do, but sometimes the conditions placed on the Workers & the Workplace can be so ludicrous that nothing can move. A lot of these "Rules" put in place are there because some young fellar, straight out of Uni is looking to impress his Boss & justify his high paid job.

I remember we had one such young fellar impose some work place conditions on us, so we invited him out to the site. He had never been out of his office. We had previously explained the situation to the Manager. They both came out & we asked the young fellar to perform the work using his conditions. He failed. It was only a simple task but he had so complicated it he would have been killed if we had let him go on.

& That's what happens in a lot of these cases, not all. Total lack of, on the job experience, common sense & lack of knowledge of the "coal face" conditions. They come up with some of the stupidest "Paper work" solutions, justifying their job.

Hi there Butch...

You're right about the wanton waste, with nearly everything. My Dad always repaired our shoes, and Mum turned our collars and the cuffs also. Thus extending the life of our shirts significantly. You mentioned powered tools and the need to have them tested and tagged before being allowed to be used again.

Mate I really don't know, you say many smaller mfg's would rather discard them and purchase new tools, thus avoiding all this red tape ?
Do you think perhaps it's somewhat of a false economy to service, repair and then re-test the item, rather than purchase a new one, and simply discard it later ? Apparently some tools are so cheap to buy, so why not ? Butch, you're far more appraised of this subject than me, because you're in the actual CSG industry, that's why I'm asking.

Years ago, I was speaking with an American Army Officer, about their logistics philosophy, and how it differed greatly to ours ? When in the field, if it's at all possible, we Aussies replenish our 'kit' by a 'repairing by replacement' philosophy. Whereas the yanks, simply replace their 'kit' and that's it. No greater example was Vietnam. When their UH-1's became AOG'd they'd simply replace it with another !The must have mfg'd 'squillions' of the things ! Go figure ?

o-sung wu: When their UH-1's became AOG'd they'd simply replace it with another.

Yep, that's how we got our spares & a bent Caribou too. ;-)

Paul, when you lower the standards of workers intelligence, common sense goes out the door, because what they have done is allowed complete half whits in to the workforce, then lowered the bar to accommodate them, the result being that good skilled workers are treated like half whits as well. That's fact!

The other problem is that the unions have forced many employers to pay on education levels, not skill levels, so many skilled workers have adopted the attitude of, 'what's the point, they get paid the same as me', another fact!

You know there's a huge problem when an employer says to their workers, 'at the end of your 12 hour shift, we don't expect you to be fatigued' yea right, that's why so little gets done.

The trouble is that once most of these mine workers try to re enter the normal work cycles, they can't handle it, that's if they even get a start because many employers can't handle their over the top safety and compliance attitudes.

It's like, how many miners does it take to dig a hole. Well, first there's the safety inspector who identifies all the so called risks. Then there are the engineers who decide whether or not the hole can be dug there. Then there's the tool box meeting to discuss what they discussed earlier in the day, and the day before that, and that.......

Finally, one person digs the hole while the other six stand around and watch.

The amusing part is they all fail to understand that you can't legislate against stupidity, but that doesn't stop them from trying.

O Sung, no, they're not repairing them, it just that the dated tag has expired so they often just buy new tools, often because those doing the tagging are contractors and, when things slow up, contractors are the first to go.

But, it's all part of why we are becoming less attractive to big business.

Hi there JAYB...

That's right I remember, you're a product of the 'Dat' weren't you ? Therefore you'd remember what I meant too. The yanks were (seemingly) awash with money, the way that everything became redundant and easily replaceable. Yet if a spring in our M16's mags., failed, the armourers wanted the old one's, in case we're operating in the illicit black mkt. ? Sure, there was a real lot of opportunity engaging in that stuff, at Nui Dat in those days ? Nevertheless, I understand their caution I suppose. JAYB you were part of the 'angry palm trees' brigade were you, nine sqn. I think they were ?