Yes and no Hoodies

How is wearing a hoody any different to wearing a rain jacket?

Kia ora Sarah
As a company we operate, on a daily basis, at least 20 small forklifts (5 tonne or less), 4large forklifts (15 - 25 tonne), three side loaders and several other heavy machines. We are a large site, and we have a lot of in-house foot traffic, all carefully managed as safely as possible. All of these machines are completing possibly thousands of tasks a day and these vehicle movements will see them crisscross the paths of many other work vehicles, during their daily use. As far as I'm aware, as one of several H & S representatives within my company, although there have been many reported vehicle incidents, i am yet to see one incident that can be traced back to the wearing of a baseball cap and there are many that wear baseball caps while operating a work vehicle, on a daily basis.
We are predominantly a factory but some of our operations are performed outside as well and I have yet to see or hear about an incident that's relatable back to the wearing of a baseball cap, this isn't to say that this hasn't happened or that it wasn't notified in the details of the incident, but until we have an incident that can be related back to the wearing of a baseball cap, then I'm not convinced that banning them has any effect on the H & S of vehicle operations. Happy to be proven wrong though.

blocking Peripheral vision, Hoodies will not protect you from rain, but i understand where you are coming from and agree there is no real difference, but there are other ways, clear Perspex screen on the roof, no rain hood required.

At the risk of upsetting someone or someones, it sounds like many of these rules? guidelines? are decided or written by those who drive a desk rather than the people who drive forklifts.

Reaching a conclusion from a distance about how others will conduct activities without close observation or stakeholder input is IMHO an autocratic process most organisations are familiar with. Quick and easy decision. Implementation is usually not as quick and easy.

To reach a conclusion after conducting observation and stakeholder input is a process most organisations are usually uncomfortable with. The cause is usually within the structure and culture of the organisation.

To discover why people do what they do, observation and discussion usually provides clarity. A difficulty most organisations also have is allowing workers to have input and make decisions that involve production processes or procedures.

Perceived as a loss of power, it is however a step towards empowering workers. Should the process or procedure require modification, workers are usually the best at collectively finding solutions. And providing the reasons why modifications are needed.

So returning to the first original question, my thoughts on this are several. Have the workers been observed conducting activities? Have they been asked if the cap impedes vision? Why do they wear the cap. But more importantly, what do they need to do their job.
Then the desk driver can write guidelines that are both robust and also provide flexibility.

A thought to keep in mind is that workers are the ones doing the activities and they are very adaptable. If something is an impediment to doing their work, give them credit when they make changes so production can continue at the rate management is comfortable with.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Eloquently put Keith, and as usual with your posts, right on the money

Cheers Steve.
Thank you for your kind words.

While I would like to think I came up with the above myself, I was fortunate to attend a Learning Teams presentation by Brent Sutton courtesy of NZISM so part of what I wrote is influenced by Brent.
I'm also doing an Adult and Tertiary Teaching qualification through SIT. That is definitely influencing and changing my approach to H&S at all levels. Would have been nice to have learned all this 20 years ago but better now than never.

My thoughts exactly.

Sarah, what are your company's policies on wearing hard-hats?

Several comments have already said what I think. In plain English, where is the evidence that caps or hoodies cause a loss of vision? Some simple measurements might do the trick. That evidence should then feed into a risk assessment carried out jointly with the workers. Include different shifts, different work activities. You then have a defensible position in the Employment Court, District Court or with WorkSafe.
Of course the measurements alone might convince the workers of any problem.

This might be taking the original post on a different tangent, but I would like to know about hard hats in forklifts. We have a policy that doesn't require hard hats in the forklifts because the forklift drivers said they couldn't fit in the cab with a hard hat - so it was decided, if you're in a forklift you don't have to wear a hard hat in the yard (moving steel and mesh), however, this has also overflowed to the warehouse, where the team are working in high racks, and their reason is visibility with a hard hat. The pallets are all wrapped to stop anything from falling out when moving the pallet, but I'm not sure this is the safest approach. Would appreciate your input..

The other consideration is that the cage provides protection from falling products so a hard hat is not really required. Also, most product is wrapped so there should be nothing loose.

I used to have that sort of thought too. Then I saw how often some forklift operators got out to move something that was in their way.

a daft rule put in place by someone thats never sat on a forklift, coming from the dairy industry a peaked cap actually helps overhead light not impacting while placing product at higher levels, for the most part your vision is directed downwards operating a forklift so caps have no bearing on vision.
exiting buildings into direct sunlight can cause sun strike, peaked caps actually help with that light change.