Manual handling
What is the problem?
Injuries can happen anywhere people are at work – on farms and building sites, in factories, offices, warehouses, hospitals, banks, laboratories, and while making deliveries. Heavy manual labour, awkward postures, manual materials handling, and previous or existing injury are all risk factors in developing MSDs.
What should I do?
Always consider the risks from manual handling to the health and safety of your employees – this guidance will help you to do this. If there are risks, the Regulations apply. Consult and involve the workforce. Your employees and their representatives know first hand what the risks in the workplace are. They can probably offer practical solutions to controlling them. The Regulations require employers to:
- Avoid the need for hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable.
- Assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual handling that can’t be avoided.
- Reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable.
Employees have duties too. They should:
- follow systems of work in place for their safety;
- use equipment provided for their safety properly;
- cooperate with their employer on health and safety matters;
- inform their employer if they identify hazardous handling activities;
- take care to make sure their activities do not put others at risk.
At Sentry, we have developed a system platform where you can create, manage and edit your documents. Furthermore, our system will automatically email you when your documents are due to expire, keeping you compliant.
