02 Apr LIFTING ACCIDENT AT WORK GOLBORNE WIGAN ASHTON IN MAKERFILED CALL 01942-665700
LIFTING ACCIDENTS AT WORK-EMPLOYERS DUTIES—ACCIDENTS IN GOLBORNE WIGAN AND ASHTON IN MAKERFIELD CALL 01942-665700.
As an employer, you must protect your workers from the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling in the workplace OTHERWISE THIS COULD CAUSE AN ACCIDENT AT WORK. Manual handling means transporting or supporting a load by hand or bodily force. It includes lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving loads. A load can be an object, person or animal.
The law sets out how employers must deal with risks from manual handling and if such steps are taken this could prevent an accident at work:
1.Avoid hazardous manual handling, so far as is reasonably practicable
2.Risk assess the risk of injury from any hazardous manual handling operations that cannot be avoided
3.reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling to as low as reasonably practicable.
The weight of a load is important, though the law does not set specific weight limits .Any lift at work above 25 kgs is considered dangerous BUT THE WEIGHT IS NOT THE DECIDING FACTOR FOR EXAMPLE SPACE AND MANNER OF LIFTING CAN LEAD TO AN ACCIDENT AT WORK.
In some cases, you must provide information about the weight and position of the centre of gravity of each load, if there is a risk of injury and it is reasonably practicable to do this. Reasonably practicable could mean for example by the employer at work providing a trolley or other lifting equipment to prevent an accident at work in the first place.
As an employer, you must protect workers from the risk of injury from manual handling. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations require you to take appropriate steps to provide general indications and, where it is reasonably practicable to do so, precise information on:
the weight of each load, and
the heaviest side of any load whose centre of gravity is not positioned centrally.
When do you mark a load?
When thinking about whether to mark a load:
you only have to label a load if there is a risk of injury and it is reasonably practicable to do so
you do not have to provide this information if it would not be reasonably practicable to do this
What information do you include?
If it is reasonably practicable to give precise information, you should, but usually quoting weights to the nearest kilogram or two is enough. You should indicate the heaviest side, if the load is enough out of balance to take handlers by surprise.
If it is not reasonably practicable to give precise information, it is enough for you to provide general indications about the weight (and heaviest sides, if applicable) of the typical kinds of loads to be handled in a job.
Information about weight should warn handlers quickly when a load is heavy. So when you do label loads you should put the information where it will be easily seen and understood. A good example is marking heavy bags at airports. Consider whether non-English speakers may handle the load.
Marking the weight on the load itself can be a good way to give precise information, but it is not required by law.
You could also alert workers on a screen or voice picking headset when scanning bar codes/QR codes, or remind workers verbally, or using a poster.
For tasks that involve just pushing or pulling without any lifting or carrying, you may not have to provide weight information, because the weight of each item is not so relevant to the risk. What matters is how much force you need to move the load, which depends on things like:
whether the load can be wheeled or if it has to be slid or dragged
the design of the trolley and its suitability for the load
the condition of the trolley (wheels and handles)
how smooth the floor is and whether it is level or sloping
You do not have to give information about pushing and pulling forces to workers. Instead, concentrate on reducing risks by providing suitable trolleys and working conditions.
You should Train staff not to overload their trolleys, for example how to know when they reach the safe working load for the equipment they are using.
HSE’s guidance on the Manual Handling Regulations and the risk assessment tool for pushing and pulling operations (the RAPP tool) gives more information.
At Faircloughs Accident claims Solicitors we have over 60 years of experience of handling lifting cases at work. We have successfully concluded many lifting cases following hernia and back /shoulder/neck injuries across GOLBORNE WIGAN AND ASHTON IN MAKERFIELD AND THE NORTH WEST OF ENGLAND.
CALL MARK OR KEN FOR A FREE NO OBLIGATION CHAT ON YOUR NO WIN NO FEE CLAIM TODAY ON 01942-665700.
HSE 2021
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