Employers must protect employees from the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling in the workplace. Manual handling means transporting or supporting a load by hand or bodily force. It includes lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving loads.
Measures to control risk will vary depending on the task. Reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling operations you can’t avoid. Where possible, provide mechanical help, for example, a sack trolley or hoist. Where this is not reasonably practicable, explore changes to the task, the load, and the working environment.
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations require employers to avoid, assess and reduce the risk of injury from manual handling.Training can be important in raising awareness and reducing risk, but it won’t ensure safe manual handling on its own. You should also monitor and review procedures to make sure workers understand and apply them.
Training should be relevant to the type of work carried out and should cover:
manual handling risk factors and how injuries can happen
systems of work relevant to the worker’s tasks and environment
practical work so the trainer can identify anything the trainee is not doing safely and put it right
The content of any training in good handling techniques should be tailored to the tasks the workers carry out.
If you would like more information about manual handling or other health and safety information, contact us today at [email protected] or by phoning 01 832 1493 / 028 9042 3222
Quadra offers an online Manual Handling Awareness course, which is a practical interactive course that is aimed at all employees. Incorrect manual handling is one of the most common causes of injury at work. The Manual Handling Awareness course consists of 6 modules with questions at the end.
Training your employees with our online system will go a long way to giving them greater awareness of the dangers that poor manual handling poses, as well as covering safe handling techniques, practical solutions to manual handling issues and the use of mechanical aids.
