Repetitive strain injury (RSI)
| For more information on Work related upper limb disorders click here for the relevant chapter of the TUC guide to health and safety "Hazards at Work |
Repetitive strain injuries affect hundreds of thousands of workers every year in Britain.
RSI covers a wide range of injuries to muscles, tendons and nerves. Usually hands, wrists, elbows or shoulders are affected. Knees and feet can also suffer, especially if a job involves a lot of kneeling or operating foot pedals on equipment.
The more common workplace strain injuries are sometimes called Work Related Upper Limb Disorders or WRULDS. This can lead to permanent disabilities, so must be stopped at an early stage.
There are many different names for these conditions, including: Tenosynovitis;
carpall tunnel syndrome; tendinitis; dupuytren’s contracture; epicondylitis
or ‘tennis or golf elbow’; Bursitis; ‘Housemaid’s knee’
or ‘beat conditions’, and overuse injury.
To prevent strains, however, requires an acknowledgement that workers are not
there to provide the flexibility in the system, through contorting and stressing
their bodies and brains to cope with poorly designed equipment or systems of
work, or through increasing their work rate to accommodate production demands,
or because the workforce is too stretched, too cowed or too insecure to complain.
Links
TUC guide: Identifying potential RSI risks in the workplace
UNISON; Information sheet on RSI
Worksmart RSI FAQs and resources
International RSI Day 28 February each year
The most recent documents available on this subject are:
'No progress' on RSI at work
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) is calling on the government to encourage employers to do more to prevent repetitive strain injury (RSI).
PDF version available for download
27 February 2009
Stress, overwork and office hazards top workers' safety concerns
Stress or overwork, injuries and illnesses caused by the poor use of display screen equipment and repetitive strain injuries (RSI) top the list of workers' safety concerns, according to the TUC's biennial survey of safety reps published today (Monday).
27 October 2008
Call to protect workers from RSI
More needs to be done to protect workers from repetitive strain injury, physios' union CSP has warned.
PDF version available for download
29 February 2008
Tube driver gets RSI compo go-ahead
A Tube driver has been granted permission to sue London Underground (LUL) after developing a debilitating wrist injury.
PDF version available for download
15 February 2008
Kids and workers need keyboard skills
The TUC is calling on the government to help stop the epidemic of workplace repetitive strain injury (RSI) by introducing typing and keyboard skills into schools.
PDF version available for download
2 March 2007
Most strain injuries made on the shopfloor
Factory workers rather than managers are most at risk from repetitive strain injury (RSI), the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) has warned.
PDF version available for download
2 March 2007
| Older documents - 8 |  |
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