Manual Handling Laws/Rules etc

Angilion said:
Then there's the "it's your fault" arrangements:

1) Employee is required to sign a form saying they've read the company guidelines about manual handling and will adhere to them.

2) Employee is required to greatly exceed those guidelines in order to get the work done in the time allowed.

If the employee is injured, then it's their fault - they're not adhering to the guidelines! The company is covered.
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Trust me they aren't.
 
oddsbodikins said:
Trust me they aren't.
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Indeed.

Just because you've signed to say you will only carry 2kg, doesn't mean the employer has right of passage in court if you've had an incident whilst carrying more than 2kg.

Under the management of health and safety at work regs 1999 they have a duty to enforce their policies. If they don't then that piece of paper means nothing.

Health and safety arrangements

5. (1) Every employer shall make and give effect to such arrangements as are appropriate, having regard to the nature of his activities and the size of his undertaking, for the effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review of the preventive and protective measures.
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Of course the owness is on you to prove negligence on behalf of the employer, but a few witness statements and the HSE or local authority would start digging deeper.
 
I work with some of the largest contractors to small regional / local outfits and all of them take H&S very seriously.

You are always going to get individuals who think it doesn't apply to them or nothing will happen to them - it does and it will. A lot of the time it comes down to the strength of the site management, their commitment to H&S and their control of the site and operatives. At the end if the day everyone is responsible and accountable for the safety of themselves and those around them.

The size of the company is irrelevant.
 
Unicorn said:
As to they get slapped hard if something happens.. I guess it has happened i have not been to work in two days because of an injury caused by manual handling.
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i hope its in the site incident book then... at our work 3 days off because of an incident would be thoroughly investigated. probably get a manual handling refresher with emphasis on the bit of ''dont do something you arent comfortable with'' but they would also sort out things at their end

the problem thesedays is people are afraid to report such things because they think ''well theres always someone desperate willing to risk their health for my job'' the truth is your company would have a hell of a job sacking you over such an incident and even more so if you where to whistle blow to health and safety
 
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If nothing else this thread highlights the fact there's a lot of people, some even in the industry that arnt familiar with the laws and regulations that protect them.
 
LOAM said:
If nothing else this thread highlights the fact there's a lot of people, some even in the industry that arnt familiar with the laws and regulations that protect them.
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It also shows that a lot of people are either too scared or can't be bothered to use the laws that protect them. I'm amazed that people moan about thier treatment at work but when you ask "have you told your boss/HR" they say no, they don't want to be marked as a trouble maker!

This needs to change and people need to stop feeling like they should "be grateful they've got a job" when in reality a company should be grateful they've got people willing to work for them.
 
23m level... As in 6th-ish floor?? Surely that's not right?

You shouldn't have to carry 6m lengths of anything up stairs mainly because things 6m long are a **** to get up stairs regardless of weight.

Are you sure you are not being a typical apprentice **** and not using a goods lift whist the rest of the site lol at you for lugging jumbo lengths of unistrut up many flights if stairs?

I would tell the Forman or my boss to go and **** him/herself if they wanted me to carry what you have described. Or was it just one run of 2 you had to shift?
 
He probably has to run up the stairs as well as it took him an age to get back from the merchants when he was sent for a long weight.
 
MeEsH BaKkA said:
Or this you should be able to ballance stuff on your shoulder, although 35kg is quite a bit for something as thin as unistrut digging in your shoulder.
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Should you? Is this the most suitable method of lifting? Actually, no, it would put increased load on one shoulder and cause an asymmetrical load on your spine which will cause you to bend/lean.

This is not about technique, it's about not using the right method.

There clearly has to be a mechanical method of getting that load to the top, but the company is either too tight to get the right lifting platform, or the employees are not trained to use such equipment.

Just because you can lift that weight, doesn't mean you should. Especially over such a long travel distance, with potential obstacles.

Tonester0011 said:
Why don't you ask how others carry the same load? There's obviously a technic and you've not learned it.
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I was always a LEGO man, myself :o;)
 
{SAS}TB said:
Carrying an object that weight and size / shape single handed across a site then up stairs is not only putting you at risk, but others too.

Sounds like your employer is not very serious about H&S and the welfare of their employees.
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Have to agree, there is no way that would be allowed at the places I have worked.
 
EVH said:
Should you? Is this the most suitable method of lifting? Actually, no, it would put increased load on one shoulder and cause an asymmetrical load on your spine which will cause you to bend/lean.

This is not about technique, it's about not using the right method.

There clearly has to be a mechanical method of getting that load to the top, but the company is either too tight to get the right lifting platform, or the employees are not trained to use such equipment.

Just because you can lift that weight, doesn't mean you should. Especially over such a long travel distance, with potential obstacles.



I was always a LEGO man, myself :o;)
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I can't spell :) :p
tenchique and method are two in the same. If others carry the same load? but do not injure themselves, yet he does the chance are he's lifting it incorrectly, 35kg isn't allot of weight when carried correctly and when spread over a 6m length.

Or I could be wrong and he is just another apprentice plonka lol and doing what they say without thinking it through. Who knows.
 
Moving 35kg on your shoulder for a healthy man should not cause too much of a problem if for a short while.

I have just orderd some unistrut about 10 mins ago, and asked the wholesaler about the weights. OP, 1x 6m length is 34kg so if you were lugging 2 at a time that's 68kg each time... So either your maths is wrong or you have your answer why your back is ******. Edit depends if double depth but single is still around 20kg odd iirc.
 
I worked in scaffolding for 3 months about 10 years ago and it was hardest 3 months work ever done. Carrying 10 foot scaffolding and boards on my shoulders. Not up 20 floors though but unloading and offloading trucks. My hands were screwed after that.

Being required to carry up stairs seems like a poor allocation of time. Wouldn't it be easier to bring them the side of the building by rope or some kind of lift?
 
Update from today, Complained to company health and safety the hammer went down on the subcontractor the manager has gone in an ****ed off mood with me about it but i told him im not being injured for no one and he will have to deal with it. Iv been instructed not to carry anything heavy anymore until i feel suitably capable to do so and even then don't push myself.

Meesh bakka there single lengths with a 2.5mm thickness to the 3 sides, slotted also. Our manufacturers sheets i checked today claimed 18kg each so i wasn't far off.

The fact of short while isn't there, Iv been doing this for 9 hours a day (after breaks etc) for weeks.

To other bits, Yeah 6th floor approx but we do it on meters due to incomplete work and more floors pop up etc.

Agree on the whole scared for job situation.. a double ended ring spanner (23mm and 21mm so u get an idea of size) flew down the staircase today missing me and another operative by a meter if that bounced and carried on to the ground, Luckily and unluckily for him a customer representive was on site and saw the whole thing. He lost his job then and there as height violations and tool drops etc are a big issue on this site and they instantly red card you for them. But what if he wasnt there.. Would anyone actually report them or just carry on and hope u avoid death or damage day to day
 
EVH said:
Indeed.

Just because you've signed to say you will only carry 2kg, doesn't mean the employer has right of passage in court if you've had an incident whilst carrying more than 2kg.
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The weight in question is 5Kg according to company paperwork.

The weight that needs to be moved around, including up and down flights of stairs, varies from 2.5Kg to 50Kg depending on which department you're working on and how busy it is. The weight is in coins, so while an outgoing float is a fixed weight (up to 20Kg) the amount that needs to be taken back in one go varies a great deal (up to 50Kg, but usually no more than 30Kg). Personally, I find it a problem. My knee is damaged (probably by the job, since chronic musculo-skeletal problems are a well known health and safety issue caused by company policy) and stairs are painful even without any weight.

Under the management of health and safety at work regs 1999 they have a duty to enforce their policies. If they don't then that piece of paper means nothing. [..]
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That may well be true on paper, but in practice it isn't. I'm fairly familiar with relevant law and company policy and thus fairly familiar with several ways my employer isn't compliant with it and it doesn't matter.

Sure, I could complain and lose my job. How would that benefit me? I couldn't afford to take them to court (you have to pay nowadays, part of this government's reforms) and even if I could do so and I did win, I still wouldn't have a job. It's a big gamble for someone in my position (as very many people are).

I'm risking my job merely by making this post. Saying anything at all critical of the company is grounds for dismissal, even if it is true.

It is a bit odd how selective they are. In some areas, they are absolutely all over the slightest H&S issue. I wasn't joking earlier when I said there are regular formal risk assessments for using washing up liquid. Even using a different brand will trigger a new risk assessment. The COSHH file is a couple of feet thick.

I'll stress sgain that my employer is relatively good in the way it treats its bottom-end employees. At least I don't have to haul very unwieldy heavy weights up many flights of stairs, for example.
 
You'll be bottom of the pile for a while as an apprentice but take it all in and when your gaffer remember these crappy things people have done to you, its all part and parcel though. The site im working on we have laborers who will bring us our stuff and I only ask him to bring what he seems sensible and is able to carry. We aren't allowed to carry anything that is longer than 3m no matter the weight by ourselves so its a 2man job for the uni strut lengths, you see the ducters carrying 6m double lengths by themselves though, divs :D
 
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