A reader asks: I work in a metal workshop and occasionally need to use an angle grinder to cut metal. The employer wants us to use larger diameter discs than before. These were supposed to cost about the same as the ones we have been using so far, but last longer. However, when using a larger cutting disc, the tool cannot be fitted with a disc guard. Do I have the right to refuse to work with an angle grinder that is without the disc guard?
Rein Reisberg, Working Environment Consultant at the Labour Inspectorate, responds:
An employee has the right to refuse to work or to stop the work the performance of which endangers their health or the health of others by immediately informing their employer or the representative of their employer and the working environment representative about it. When you report a refusal to work, you must justify how the work puts your health at risk. If the employee submits a verbal refusal and the employee and the employer disagree on that, the right thing to do is to inform the employer in writing, for example by sending an e-mail or a message, so that the refusal can be proved if necessary.
As many as 24% of last year's occupational accidents involved an employee losing control of a tool or vehicle. The incidents primarily occur in the metalworking and timber industries which use various types of machinery and sharp tools, which often lead to severe consequences.
There is an obvious health hazard when using an angle grinder without a protective disc guard on the cutting disc. After all, the disc guard is designed to prevent the employee being exposed to the cutting disc. Such accidents usually occur when an employee makes an unintentional movement, for example due to a loss of balance, and the rotating cutting disc comes into contact with their arm or leg. The disc guard also helps to prevent pieces of the cutting disc from flying towards the employee if the disc happens to break.
If a hand comes into contact with the rotating cutting disc, the damage to health is usually severe. Wounds caused by cutting discs take a long time to heal, and there have been cases when after several similar occupational accidents, employees have not recovered the range of motion of their arm. An even more unfortunate example concerns a broken cutting disc. In this case an employee also used a larger diameter cutting disc than foreseen by the user manual of the tool, due to which the disc guard could not be used. However, during the cutting operation, the cutting disc broke and one of the pieces of the disc penetrated into the chest of the employee, resulting in their death.
Therefore, there is reason to believe that working with an angle grinder without a protective disc guard poses a hazard to an employee’s health and the employee has the right to refuse to use such an angle grinder.
The picture shows an example of how an angle grinder should not be used.
All articles