10.1 Hirarchy of controls

I will highlight my family member who works at a construction site:
My family member has a lot of opportunities to harm himself ergonomically.
using the hierarchy of controls, here is how we might address them:

1. Elimination:
One example of eliminating a hazard is to automate a process so that workers don’t have to lift heavy equipment. recently, the company has gotten machines that help them roll wooden panels and lots of wooden dollies to help them carry their equipment.

2)Substitution:
using other less dangerous tools in place of the higher danger tools. Or another example is getting professional machines that can do the job like hammering the walls with an automatic nail gun.

3) Engineering controls:
instead of getting multiple people involved with dangerous work such as holding up pillars for wooden panels, you could get a T-brace machine or a lift that can help reduce the stress of the body.

4) administrative controls: constantly training new efficient ways to get jobs done. Hiring new staff that can share their experience to teach other methods. Take safety classes. Or, avoid the problem at all cost (i.e: not filing heavier than what you can carry to limit your back pain)

5) personal protective equipment :
using hard hats, wearing gloves, watching out for falling objects


what they're really doing about ?
the company is a rather small company with not a lot of money invested within these procedures. It also isn't a good thing that my family member works in a family owned construction company so a lot of the norms and beliefs on how things should be managed are "old school mentality"

2) What might be the barriers to workers exercising their rights to a healthy and safe workplace?

stakeholders such as employers must be willing to speak up when they feel they are not getting enough support or companies are limited due to their resources (financially/ educationally). Lots of companies are not willing to follow rules and regulations on certain practices and whether auditing or follow up for safety training and other resources to make their job more comfortable and efficient isn't always a priority.