Extending Your Student Visa

A student visa that lets you study at the university of your choice is a terrific thing for you. But what happens if your studies take longer than you planned? On top of exams and term papers, you may have to worry about your student visa expiring. That’s where an immigration lawyer can be your best friend. Understanding how immigration laws work can be the first step to making sure that you keep your student visa in good standing. My blog is all about immigration issues, especially those faced by foreign students. Check out the articles for more information that you can use to complete your studies in the country you chose to study in.

Getting Ready For Robots In The Workplace: Are You Safe With Your Computerized Counterparts?

Law Blog

If you're not working with any robots yet, you can expect to soon. By 2018, there will be an estimated 1.3 million robots in the workplace and while that may be good for progress, it's only good for people if they know how to safely coexist. No matter what your job, rank or education level, you're going to benefit from learning more about the robots that are coming in the near future and how to be safe around them.

Keeping Safety Standards High In An Industrial Robotics Environment

Despite the fact that robots are taking up the more difficult and mundane jobs, even possibly helping to reduce the number of repetitive stress injuries among human employees, they are big, heavy and extremely powerful, making them a potential hazard to anyone in their general vicinity. Nonetheless, because they're becoming more prevalent in the modern day workplace, it's important that employees themselves, along with employers, keep the safety standard high when interacting with any robotic device. Beyond the actions your employer takes to maintain a safe environment, there's much you can do yourself, too:

Look For Written Safety Material

Your employer should have written materials available to all employees explaining the different ways you can all stay safe while working and especially when dealing with industrial robots, you need to actually read and learn the materials, understanding every aspect of operation. Whatever your responsibilities are in dealing directly with a robot, make sure you are 100% clear and that you don't enter into contact with it until you're confident you fully comprehend the machine, what it does, where it does it and the role you play.

Seek Additional Information And Intensive Training

Going through the motions with the machines when they're not fully functional (and therefore, not capable of harming you) can help you learn how to be safer, by familiarizing you through repetition. Ask for all the training your employer can provide and participate in all training demonstrations, even if you're already completed them. The more adept you are with the robots, the safer you'll be. Especially if the robot's manufacturer pays a visit to your workplace to offer training, don't miss it. Not only will you be reinforcing your safety knowledge, you'll also be increasing your value as an employee, by ascertaining an in depth understanding of the technology that runs the business.

Make Sure You're Rested And Alert Around Robots

Lucille Ball, in her famous chocolate assembly line skit, made the process look hilarious and harmless, with no greater consequence of failure than a trail of candies falling onto the floor. In reality, though, not being able to keep up with automated counterparts can be very dangerous, as well as expensive to the employer. Try not to skip lunch or forego breaks, even if the workload is demanding. People need rest in order to remain alert and therefore, safe.

Avoid Any Unnecessary Entry Into The Robot's Work Area

Even after you've taken every training course and become intimately familiar with the robots you're working with, it's never safe to enter their work area, unless doing so is part of the machine's programmatic function. For example, if the robot is designed to work around you or has the safety mechanisms that stop it from continuing when a human is detected, there should be no negative consequences to entering its space; however, if it's a simple machine that will continue to work regardless of your presence, avoid unnecessary contact, no matter how familiar or comfortable you feel around it.

What To Do If You Are Injured

As with any on-the-job injury, you should have established protocols to follow and these should be posted publicly, somewhere in your workplace. Although accidents involving robots do necessitate additional investigations outside of the traditional realm, you should still handle your injury accordingly:

Follow Doctor's Instructions Explicitly

Have a thorough medical examination to uncover any and all aspects of your injury. Even if you feel "it's nothing", take the advice of your physician seriously and allow your body the time it needs to heal. If your injury is more serious in nature, do as the doctor recommends in terms of treatments such as physical therapy and rest and don't work, even if it's just around your home, if you're ordered not to.

Thoroughly Document What Occurred

You should document all the details of your accident, not only for medical reports and a possible workers comp case, but in case the manufacturer of the robot needs the data which you'll provide. The incident may be something that could have been avoided if different safety measures were in place or the robot could have somehow malfunctioned. No matter what, helping the robot's maker will help other workers to be safer and possibly avoid whatever happened to you from happening to others. Documentation should involve all details of the incident, times, dates, supervisors on duty, witnesses and anything else relevant.

Ask Your Boss For More Resources

Especially if you'll be out of work for a while, you need to make sure that you (and your family, if applicable) will be taken care of. Ask your boss to help you out by providing you with all the information you'll need, such as contact numbers to the company's insurer, a hotline for injured employees, printed materials on filing a claim and so forth.

Visit A Workers Compensation Attorney

Whether or not your employer is cooperative and irrespective of the extent of your injuries, you should contact a workers compensation lawyer, like one from Walz Law Office. Inform them of your situation, including what your physical outlook is and future job prospects are expected to be. If you're experiencing resistance from work or their insurer or are afraid of anything else going on and how it could impact you now and moving forward, a workers comp lawyer will answer all your questions and should eventually alleviate any fears you have.

While there's a lot of publicized speculation about robots possibly taking jobs from people, you're most certainly at greater risk of being left behind in the upcoming robot revolution if you can't operate safely among them. Make keeping yourself safe around them a priority, know what to do if you're ever injured by them and understand that no matter how reliant any company becomes on technology, their human components are protected by very strict and enforceable laws.

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12 September 2017