My state requires every single operator to be licensed to run any machinery. I keep seeing these low paying jobs, right about minimum wage, trying to get people to run forklift without being properly licensed to do so. Operators are responsible for maintaining a license, so this is leaving many operators probably unknowingly operating illegally. Operating illegally leaves the door open for them to be ay fault for any injuries, or damages, since they shouldn't have been operating in the first place.
Not only is this an issue because the operators is not going to get the same protections they would if they were legally operating, it's also allowing these employers to pay machine operators stupid low wages that no one would accept if they knew they had to keep up with a Massachusetts hoisting license. You're required to get a DOT medical card once every two years, one if you have medical conditions, then apply for the test, wait months to get the date, more months until the test, pass, complete the OSHA training, then go get trained on the machinery before you're legal to operate. Then you have to do continued education, and OSHA, every 2 years, along with the DOT, and license renewal every 2 years.
Clearly anyone doing all this to keep up with their license would not be willing to accept minimum or close to minimum wage for not only their skills on the machinery, but the pain in the ass keeping up with the medical card, 2 classes, and renewal along with the initial headaches you have to go through.
So they're not only putting them in a situation where they are illegally operating, which could nullify protections they would normally have, they're robbing them of proper pay for the position as well since they aren't licensed. So I've started to report any of them that are openly listing their business on the ads, unless they're mentioning that you NEED to be licensed by the state. The one's that don't list their business name, I've been applying to so I can find out what company it is to be able to report them.
It may not be much, it may only effect a small group of people in specific positions, in a specific location, but everything counts. We may have never gotten to this point in the first place if so many people never got complacent and willing to accept shitty as the norm. Don't ever think any action to help change of fix a situation is too small, irrelevant, etc. You never know when your efforts effect others even if you never see it. You don't plant seeds to sit in the shade, you plant seeds so others can sit in the shade.