These boots are made for walking, or should that be, these boots are made for getting off quickly?
Students of the “people papers” within the various professional exams should be aware of the joint responsibility for “health & safety” within an organization.
In other words, a number of legal systems around the world place the responsibility for health and safety on both the employer AND the employee.
Employers have various obligations such as providing safe equipment to use. For example, they should undertake regular electrical checking of any IT equipment that is used.
Employees’ duties include being responsible for their own health and safety and not acting in a manner that may endanger a colleague.
A product from Levi Strauss, the famous jeans and clothing company has a nice link to health & safety.
One of the styles of boots sold by Levis are based on the shoes that were worn by Californian railway workers in the 1800s. Their design is such that they are easy to get off. This enabled any railway worker that got his foot stuck in the tracks as a train was speeding towards him to get his boot off quickly so as to avoid being hit by the fast approaching train.
An early example of health & safety at work!
I wonder though how many people that buy these boots at the Levi’s stores work on the railways? Either way, it’s always nice to be able to easily kick off your boots after a hard day of chatting to friends!
