Tuesday 5 February 2008

Gloves on in the Canteen

We were at the front of the sandwich queue this morning at breakfast time when the girl that serves the sandwiches was brought to a halt. Her boss came along with a thick woven glove and told her to put it on. They apologised for the hold up and explained that some woman at a canteen up north keeps cutting herself, so everyone working with sharp knives in any of their canteens now has to wear one of these gloves. Steve explained that it was made of Kevlar. Her boss helped her on with the glove, then told her to put a latex glove over the top of that. It looked like it wouldn’t fit over the top, but together they managed it.
“Now bend over” she said across the counter to us, when they had got the latex glove on. We laughed. Her boss told her to try it and see how she got on with it. She struggled to cut the sausages for my sandwich, telling us:
“I’m careful, I never cut myself.”
Then once she’d got the sandwich together she tried to grab a paper bag off the top of the pile, to put my sandwich in. “I can’t open the paper bags to put the sandwiches in.”
Steve and me both grabbed at the bag to open it up for her. I don’t know how long she lasted with it. We’ll see if she’s still wearing it tomorrow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those health and Safety dickheads can really screw things up. No one should ever take what they say seriously.

Anonymous said...

Health and safety has gone mad. For hundreds and thousands of years people have been preparing food with sharp knives, without having to wear padded gloves. Why can't they just sack the woman who keeps cutting herself? Or put her on different duties, like stirring the beans or frying the eggs.

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