The Blame Game (Health and Safety in General)

Name: johnwinters

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Product:	Health and Safety in General
Date:	18.10.01 (73 review reads)
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I am writing in frustration over an incident that happened to me while at work.
I am a Postman on a walking duty and have been for four years now. Two weeks ago while on my run I was delivering on a typical Scottish morning, it was chucking it down,and was delivering to a tenement in a very seedy area where the people in the close are not very, how shall I put it,tidy. The stairs are full of rubbish, bottles, papers,wood with nails in it,and other things I wont mention. Also the light sometimes doesnt work and as it was about 7.45 in the morning the close was quite dark.
I am very aware of the state of this close and am always very careful when going up the stairs,but this morning as I was coming down from the top landing I was avoiding the debris side stepping coming down when I slipped. I stopped myself with my free hand, but gave my leg a twist.
I decided to carry on a bit and see how I felt, and after about fifteen minutes my leg was getting sorer and my neck must have twisted as well as that was sore also. I decided to phone my manager to report that I had an accident but I would finish my deliveries which would take me about another hour.Well thats when the situation got worse, The managers reply was make up your f###en mind you either had a fall or your continuing your run. I got quite angry at this but just repeated what had happened, he told me to come back to the office to fill in some forms.
So after finishing my deliveries I hobbled on to a bus and went back to the office. The Manager I spoke to was busy when I went back ,he had to stand in for the postmen that serves the customers that were not in and come to the office and collect the post ,he told me to wait, after twenty minutes he asked what had happened,checked I was wearing my uniform,work shoes etc , all this while serving customers.
After this he went up the stairs to ask our Main managerand after twenty seconds or so came back and said that he
said it was your own fault so I had no claim. I blew up at this stage ,as all I wanted was to put my name in the accident book and go home, and told him where to stick his forms and went home.
The procedure in Royal Mail is to report any accident in the book and Management would go to the scene, take photos of the area and make a report. It took the Manager three days to go to the tenement in question, on a dry day and without a camera as it was broken he said.
The next day I recieved a letter from management saying that they had looked into my complaint and in his opinion with more care and attention I could have avoided the fall.
My leg and neck were sore for about a week and I was in agony trying to sleep at night but I kept going to work as I felt under pressure and want to keep my job.

I just feel let down badly as it was an accident, I didnt mean to do it and I ended up feelong the guilty party instead of the victim. I just dont understand this Gestapo type of management as I wasn't blaming Royal Mail, it was the people in the close to blame.
Iam sorry for going on , but had to get it off my chest and feel very let down.Why do they have to play the blame game.

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