The thin end of the safety wedge

It's not that I begrudge this gentleman his settlement, because he does seem to have had a particularly nasty fall, and certainly deserves some compensation, but to be able to claim, successfully, that his employer was at fault for not showing him how to use a step-ladder is going to open the floodgates. Not, I must add, to the the hordes of "if you've had a trip or fall anywhere at work in the last three years, let us sue their arses off for you" brigade, but to the armies of nannies who spring up in any organisation which fears the lawyers.

Example: at my last-but-one job, the company were so fearful of being sued by employees and contractors for RSI and other keyboard/monitor related conditions that they employed a person whose sole job was to visit each new inductee, and get them to fill out and sign a form stating that they knew how to use the chair, desk, keyboard, mouse and monitor in such a manner that they would not be able to suffer from glare, neck strain, back-ache, numb legs, and anything else not covered by the fore-mentioned list but otherwise arising from any use, abuse, and misuse of the company furniture and desktop equipment. And it wasn't enough for me to quickly tick all the right boxes and sign my name; I was forced to go through the points one by one, listening to and repeating the person's instructions, and then demonstrating that I knew where each adjustment was. It was one of the most stupid, and almost humiliating experiences I can recall, ever.

And now, if I were to sink so low as to need to apply for a janitor's position in a council run building, school, enclosure or other contained place for which the aforesaid body had responsibility, what could I expect but an examination in how to use a stepladder, bucket and mop safely, and who knows where it would end?

Mark my words, after the first successful suing of a restaurant by a customer for choking on a bone or falling off a chair, you aren't going to be allowed to sit down at a table and read a menu before you have satisfied some tawdry little bureaucrat that you know, and can prove, that you can sit on a chair and position it correctly at the table, hold, use, and put down your knife and fork, and handle a glass without causing any possible form of litigious injury to yourself.