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[ Focus: Health and safety ]


should come as no surprise that, according to the HSE, the highest estimated rates occur with those working in the health and social welfare sectors where workers are regularly required to lift and move patients. However, the HSE statistics reveal the construction sector has one of the highest levels of handling injuries as a percentage of its workforce. In reporting on MSDs, in its Labour Force Survey, the HSE points out that they can affect muscles, joints and tendons in all parts of the body, and they divide them between back disorders, upper limb disorders (hand, wrist, arm, elbow, shoulder and neck) and lower limb disorders. From a pure insurance point of view, the Electrical


Contractors’ Insurance Company (ECIC) does not see a significant number of major claims for industrial injury relating to manual handling incidents; in fact, the number of claims has reduced. However, it is impossible to estimate what impact the business environment has had in this area. Undoubtedly, the contraction of the overall workforce in this sector will have led to a lower number of reported injuries. Also, when work is not so easy to come by, it could be that workers won’t make a claim if they think it may jeopardise future job prospects. However, while claims for compensation for manual handling injuries may not be a major cause for concern, there are other significant costs associated with the lost working days they lead to. They can result in employers carrying the cost of lost productivity, wages or overtime to cover for the person off sick and, of course, there remains the potential for compensation payments.


42 ECA Today March 2013


The risks are the same whatever the size of your business


Compliance In this industry, it is all too easy for employers to overlook the issues surrounding manual handling and concentrate on those areas where the perceived risk is substantially higher, where single incidents could be of such gravity that they could be costly in both human and financial terms. However, there are health and safety regulations that apply to manual handling, and every employer, whatever the industry, needs to be compliant. To be clear, manual handling is not simply


about how to lift a box – in fact, the term possibly masks the range of activities that it covers. Manual handling applies to the movement of items by lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing or pulling, and injuries are not only caused by someone trying to move something that is too heavy. Shifting heavy loads is only one aspect, and even if this isn’t something one of your workers is required to do in the course of a working day, there could be other activities that carry the risk of long-term repetitive stress injury. Most relevant to this industry are those injuries


that are caused by constant repetition of an action or by twisting, bending, stretching or any other awkward posture someone might be in while performing a task. Typical of this could be someone using power tools at shoulder height or above for long periods, or performing a task that requires repetitious actions involving the same movements, in addition to frequent and repetitive lifting of heavy items that often occurs within the industry.


SHUTTERSTOCK / DIM DIMICH


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