Back injury while moving heavy furniture alone at work

If you are asked to move heavy furniture at work, it’s probably going to be quite difficult to move by yourself. Normally help is required to do it safely. But what if you are asked to lift heavy furniture all by yourself?

The applicable law is The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. Regulation 4 (b) states that each employer shall:

(i) make a suitable and sufficient assessment of all such manual handling operations to be undertaken…

(ii) take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury to those employees arising out of their undertaking any such manual handling operations to the lowest level reasonably practicable

This puts a duty on your employer to make sure that any manual handling tasks that are done are safe. So if your employer asks you to move heavy furniture and you are injured as a result, they are either failing to properly assess the task, or ignoring the fact that the task is clearly dangerous in the first place.

If you suffer an injury you may have a claim for personal injury compensation against your employer. They should have insurance, as it’s a legal obligation to have employer’s liability insurance. If we can prove that your employer has failed to adhere to regulations, we can make a successful claim.

For accidents at work like this that occur before the end of July, we can probably help you out on a No Win, No Fee basis and make sure you still get to keep all 100% of your compensation. So give us a call on 0800 634 75 75 and we will assess your claim over the phone.

If you need treatment, as many people do when suffering from a back injury, which is common with manual handing injuries like this, we may be able to arrange to get you private medical help.