Three County Cork road workers were returning from a job in Carrigaline, Ireland, when they saw a pothole. They stopped and repaired the pothole. A Health and Safety worker saw them, and the three men were consequently suspended from their jobs because they had not filed the proper paperwork for this particular pothole before repairing it.
Councillor John Mulvihill Snr, a former mayor of Cork, said health and safety was of vital importance.
He said that in recent times three road workers had died in accidents. The result was that the council was enforcing legislation rigorously.
"Health and safety is number one and you cannot put people's lives at risk," he said.
"The law says it was not safe. You need three or four people to fill in a pothole including two with 'Stop and Go' signs.
Mulvihill acknowledged that the three men had exemplary records and 90 years of experience between them, and suggested a warning could have been enough. The workers' union has gone to bat to protest the suspensions. Link -via Arbroath
One day, a farmer was plowing his fields when he saw an ODOT truck stop by the side of the road. A worker got out with a shovel and dug a hole in the dirt. Then he went back inside. Another man got out of the truck and filled in the hole. He went back inside the truck. The truck drove 50 feet, then the men repeated the process.
After watching several holes being dug and filled, the farmer walked over to the men and asked what they were doing. "We're planting trees," was the response.
The farmer said, "But you're not actually planting trees. You're just digging holes, then filling them in."
The first ODOT worker said, "Yeah, but the guy who actually plants the trees called in sick today."