For employers, adhering to manual handling regulations is one of the most important things they need to get right. It is so easy to injure your back by using poor lifting techniques or because routes and lifts are not properly risk assessed by employers. There is a significant duty on employers to make sure that their employees are adequate trained and the lifting exercise is risk assessed to take in to account the weight and size of the load, the amount of people needed to assist, the use of mechanical assistance, and the safety of the journey (to name a few common factors!)
As a law firm specialising in accident at work claims, I can tell you that despite the strict rules and regulations in place, employers are still cutting corners and getting it wrong. If you’re reading this I assume it’s because you have injured yourself at work due to manual handling. For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to go in to manual handling alone.
So, as I said earlier, your employer has a duty to risk assess any manual handling activity. If you are going to be instructed to lift something on your own, your employer needs to be confident that:
- You can lift safely in accordance with proper manual handling techniques
- You do not need supervision
- You are able to lift the weight and size of the load without struggling
- The route of the lift is safe, and you have been advised accordingly
- The amount of lifting takes in to account regular breaks for you
Basically, most employees probably don’t have a clue about precautions like those above unless they have been specifically instructed and trained with regards to them. So you may have had training in the correct techniques, and you may know the route well, but what if you are instructed to lift 100 boxes in the space of an hour? Have your employers told you when and how often you will need breaks? Is there any kind of assistance from colleagues that could lighten the load, or from a truck or a trolley?
If you’re working unsupervised, you may not consider this kind of thing yourself. You have your job, you have your instructions, and you have your deadline. Most of us just get on with it. But after an hour of lifting, you may have injured your back or arms from the continual lifting over an hour without breaks. The pain may not appear right away as well – so you may just continue until later on that day you realise something is wrong.
If you are instructed by your employer to complete a manual handling task alone, the most important factors are training and instructions specific to the risk assessment of the task. If you are not instructed in taking certain precautions like having regular breaks, how are you to know to do this? Manual handling activities should be properly risk assessed to take in to account supervising and instruction.
This of course is just one example of a manual handling injury at work. For advice about making a claim for an injury at work, call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75.
