But it isn’t just the practice of lifting and carrying safely that has to be done right – the route in which a load must be moved also needs to be risk assessed as well. When carrying a load, especially a large one, your view may be restricted and you’re probably concentrating on moving the load safely and not what’s beneath you on the ground.
There are specific regulations that address the safety of floors, but focusing on just manual handling activities for the moment, the employer has a duty to risk assess all manual handling activities to make sure that all reasonable steps are taken to reduce the risk of injury. Examples of things they should consider could be:
- Any steps or slopes
- Any routes over outdoor terrain that could be affected by the weather
- Stony or gravelly areas where a person could stumble on rough ground or slip on loose ground
- Areas where items or debris may be left on the floor (e.g. a warehouse where boxes could end up in traffic routes)
All these things need to be considered to make sure that you are not injured by uneven ground when you’re trying to move a load. So if you are injured because you trip and fall, or stumble and the load comes loose and hits your feet, you may have a work injury claim for compensation.
If the accident was entirely preventable, we would argue that your employer has failed to take all reasonable steps to ensure you’re not injured. You may be fully trained and competent in lifting and the load may be of a safe weight and size, but if you fall and it could have been prevented, you may have a claim.
100% Compensation & No Win, No Fee
Employers should be insured with special insurance which is there for you to claim from if you’re injured at work. If the claim wins, we can recover our legal fees from the insurance. Due to some legal changes from April 2013, most other lawyers will want to take 25% from your claim because the government stopped lawyers recovering all of the fees we used to be able to. But we do still get paid and we have decided our clients can still get 100% of their compensation.
We offer a full No Win, No Fee service as well – if we think you have a claim, we will take the risk of the case on and not charge you if the claim doesn’t succeed.