OH and S Gone Mad

I was chatting to my neighbour this morning, who recently scored a job with the big multinational company I left in 2000, which is now domiciled in Macquarie Park. He's a technician in the maintenance and repair department, and he told me some horror stories about the company's OH&S policies. These include:

• Because they have a lino/vinyl floor, he and his colleagues are not allowed to have chairs with castors on them, in case they roll back unexpectedly and cause an accident to the user or a colleague. So he's on a chair with fixed legs and can't move about his workspace adequately. He also can't get close enough to his desk to comfortably get his knees under and work or use a computer. He has a sliding keyboard tray, but the mouse won't fit on it and has to go on the desktop itself. So when he needs to use the mouse he has to slide the keyboard in and reach uncomfortably forward. He complained to OH&S but they told him he was working at the appropriate ergonomic workstation. He managed to find a chair with castors last week, and the OH&S people told him it was against the rules. He complained that because of their OH&S procedures he was getting back problems trying to use a chair without castors. The argument continues.
• His department has recently taken delivery of a small crane, the type used to lift engines out of car bodies. Because it didn't come with an instruction manual - as he says, it's obvious how you use it! - OH&S won't let anyone use it until a work instruction has been written and signed off on. Having worked for them myself I know this could take weeks or months. I do understand why you need a work instruction, it's Cover Your Butt material for management. In the meantime however, four employees have to risk their own backs lifting heavy objects together.
• One of his colleagues made a joke to OH&S about putting plastic blades in the Stanley knives used at the facility so workers don't inadvertently cut themselves. OH&S actually considered the idea until it was pointed out it was actually a joke. Like airport personnel, the OH&S people take jokes very seriously.
• In the kitchen areas, all drawers containing sharp knives have to be labelled as such. Even so, one employee recently cut herself on a sharp knife reaching in for a teaspoon so now sharp knives are banned completely. Heaven help anyone wanting to cut up a tomato for a salad lunch, or cut a birthday cake. Honestly, does the management consider all employees to be dolts or children? Are they so terrified of a lawsuit? (And that's probably another post in itself.)

I'm glad I don't work for this organisation any more. My neighbour, after only six weeks, is so frustrated at the overwhelming and overweening nanny state the company's OH&S procedures have produced that he is now looking for another job.

Are my neighbour and I alone in thinking this company's procedures have gone overboard? How far is too far with OH&S? When it starts to interfere with how people actually perform the tasks set them - as it is in my neighbour's case with his chair and keyboard setup - it's not a workable situation. I think it's OH&S gone mad. How about you?