A local factory that my company occasionally deals with has removed all guards and safety devices from their machines including presses that are loaded by hand and robot welding cells.
The resident maintenance staff have argued with management about this policy to no avail. The union representatives are only concerned with their members wages as all production labour are unskilled foreign workers (mostly non-English speaking) on piece work.
A letter to the MD listing the maintenance staff's concerns was torn up in front of a staff member.
The resident maintenance staff have contacted the local Health & Safety Executive who will only inspect the plant following an accident.
What else can be done?
Machine safety.
