Employers must protect workers from injuries caused by hazardous manual handling. This includes tasks like lifting, pushing and carrying loads by hand using brute strength where necessary. Follow best practices to reduce these risks and ensure a safe workplace.
- Minimise hazardous manual handling whenever possible to ensure safety and lower the risk of injury.
- Evaluate the risk of injury from unavoidable hazardous manual handling tasks. Identify potential dangers and take necessary precautions to ensure worker safety.
- To reduce the risk of injury from hazardous manual handling, aim to make it as low as reasonably practicable. While the weight of a load is crucial, specific weight limits are not defined by law.
The minimum requirement under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 is to:
- Identify hazards in your business that could harm employees or customers, including physical, chemical, ergonomic and stress related risks.
- Assess the likelihood and severity of potential harm to determine the risk level accurately.
- Take steps to eliminate hazards or control risks if elimination isn't possible. Risk assessment is just one part of managing workplace safety.
This Health and Safety Executive video explains exactly what is required as an employer in protecting staff and other people from harm on their premises. See it now on YouTube
Businesses must have a health and safety policy outlining their approach. It should detail who handles what, when and how. Companies with five or more employees must document this policy. If you have less than five, there isn't a legal requirement to write down the policy but it may prove to be useful if you do. Sharing the policy and updates with employees is mandatory.
The policy needs to cover the following three areas:
1. Statement of intent
Give details of the general policy on health and safety which should include your committment and aims towards the managing of health and safety. This policy should be signed by senior management and reviewed regularly.
2. Make it known who is responsible for health and safety
Create a list of the people who are responsibile for health and safety. Put each person's name, position and role.
3. Arrangements for health and safety
List what arrangements you have in place to be able to achieve your policy aims. Examples are - ensuring staff are suitably trained for the tasks set including equipment training, correct safety signage throughout the premises and doing risk assessments.
Here are examples (pdf) and templates (pdf) of how to write a health and safety policy.
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