How to Stay Visible in Dangerous Working Conditions

When you hear of yet another accident in the workplace, often associated with situations like a pedestrian being hit by a forklift reversing, you have to wonder why more people don’t wear better high visibility clothing to make them stand out in warehouses, factories and construction sites.

The law is quite clear about employees wearing high visibility clothing, especially where there is a range of potential hazards which can involve chemicals, electricity and biological dangers. The problems can be exaggerated by people who lack experience and those who have, perhaps too much.

Experience Counts

New people on the job might be wearing their high visibility Hard Yakka workwear over their King Gee workwear short-sleeved shirt, but they haven’t yet gained the experience to know what’s happening around them and see a danger before it arrives.

Conversely, some workers have so much experience in their line of work that they know how to move at the last second to avoid an accident, yet maximising their time to complete the job in hand. The difficulty arises when they become unable to judge that last-second properly.

The Right Clothing for the Right Job

Even in modern times, small businesses will always insist that their workers wear correct boots during their employment, and most will turn up with their Steel Blue Boots and not leisurewear, but when it’s so easy to buy workwear online, high visibility clothing is often a last thought for the one or two person business.

Meeting the Australian Standard in Safety clothing is vitally important if your workwear is going to be durable and effective.

 Be EasilySeen

Many workers wear their high visibility outfits and understand that it is better to be seen to reduce the risk of accidents, than to take any chances or risks. Employers are obliged to look after the health and safety of their employees and while you need to be able to see other workers, when you are in a potentially dangerous situation, it is just as important for them to be able to see you.

Depending upon the nature of an employee’s work, the requirements for high visibility clothing can vary from a simple waistcoat at one end of the spectrum to full body clothing at the other.

Buying workwear online gives employers and self-employed people the opportunity to buy high visibility clothing at good prices. It’s not worth taking the risk buying cheap versions of quality workwear, because they might not help protect people just when that safety is required and an accident that was preventable might end the life of somebody just doing their job.