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This is an excerpt from the TUC book "Hazards at Work: Organising for safe and healthy workplaces", the best-selling guide to health and safety at work. To buy a copy order here(if you are a safety representative on a TUC training course please speak to your tutor about getting a discounted copy))

BASIC FACTS ABOUT MANUAL HANDLING

Manual handling means more than simply lifting or carrying something. The term is used to describe activities including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, carrying, moving, holding or restraining an object, animal or person. It also covers activities that require the use of force or effort such as pulling a lever or operating power tools.

According to the HSE, musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are the most common cause of occupational ill health in Great Britain, currently affecting 1 million people a year and costing society £5.7 billion (www.hse.gov.uk/msd/mac/index.htm). MSDs affect the muscles, joints, tendons and other parts of the musculoskeletal system. In the 2008 TUC survey, twofifths of representatives (40 per cent) identified repetitive strain injuries (RSI) as a major concern, while over three in ten (31 per cent) saw back strain as a problem. RSI was the third most identified hazard and back strain fifth – a continued cause for concern given the emphasis the HSE has placed on reducing these injuries. Back strains caused particular problems in the health service (47 per cent), distribution, hotels and restaurants (67 per cent) and leisure services (52 per cent).

According to the HSE leaflet Getting to Grips with Manual Handling, more than a third of all reported injuries to the HSE that result in someone being off work for more than three days are caused by manual handling. A trade union survey has found back pain is far more common and affects a wider group of people than previously thought – with sedentary work one of the causes. An online poll carried out for the physiotherapists’ union CSP found that two thirds of the population (68 per cent) were struck down with back pain at least once in the previous 12 months. A third of those affected experienced a “shocking” five or more episodes over the course of the year. Most sufferers said their back pain lasted between one and three days, but for one fifth the pain is ongoing. It says people of all ages are affected.

The hazards from manual handling are responsible for a heavy toll of suffering, much of it endured in silence and never fully reported. Thousands of workers have to leave their jobs each year, thousands more stay on only to suffer further. If a job feels uncomfortable then it is probably doing harm. The aim should be to fit the job to the worker, not the other way round.

LEGAL AND OTHER STANDARDS FOR PREVENTION AND CONTROL

A considerable number of laws and regulations of general application apply to manual handling. Duties can be found in the following chapters of Hazards at Work:

• SRSC Regulations 1977 – Chapter 3, with reference to safety representatives’ rights and consultation
• Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 – Chapter 12, dealing with the general duties of employers and employees under Sections 2–9. Generally, the employer has a duty to ensure the health, safety and welfare of employees
• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 – Chapter 13, with the obligations placed upon employers to make suitable and sufficient assessments of risks to their employees. They must also make arrangements for the health and safety of employees by effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review
• Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (as amended) – Chapter 43
• Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare)Regulations 1992 (as amended) – Chapter 45
• the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 – Chapter 49, where employers must notify their enforcing authority in the event of an accident at work to any employee resulting in death, major injury or incapacity for normal work for three or more days

The HSE has produced an online Manual Handling Assessment Chart tool to help the user identify highrisk workplace manual handling activities. It can be found at www.hse.gov.uk/msd/mac/index.htm The tool can be used to assess the risks posed by lifting, carrying and team manual handling activities. It is designed to help employers understand, interpret and categorise the level of risk of the various known risk factors associated with manual handling activities. The MAC incorporates a numerical and a colour coding score system to highlight high-risk manual handling tasks.

WHAT CAN SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES DO?

There are a number of positive steps that safety representatives can take to raise awareness and tackle problems to do with manual handling.

Identifying manual handling problems

Safety representatives can help to identify sources of risk, mobilise members and press employers to make improvements. Safety representatives can:

• carry out regular inspections
• look critically at all work operations that involve lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling
• make a list of all such tasks
• note the size, shape and weight of the loads involved (bags, boxes, bales, sacks, drums of chemicals)
• ask members how often they have to handle heavy loads, through what heights, over what distance, under what conditions, how often and with what assistance
• circulate a short questionnaire to members
• try out body mapping with members
• make an inventory of typical loads and manual handling tasks for each department
• look at the accident book and sickness records. How many accidents seem to be connected with manual handling, and how much absence is associated with back trouble or rheumatism?
• ask members if they have ever suffered with a back problem and to what extent it was caused or aggravated by manually handling loads at work
• check how many members with limited manual handling capacity (through age, size, poor health, pregnancy, etc.) are required to handle heavy loads
• ask if members are required to handle heavy loads outside the workplace, e.g. delivering goods
• rank the problems identified in terms of priority and work out which to tackle first

Having investigated the size of the problem, safety representatives can report back to members, and decide on priorities for manual handling risk assessments to be carried out. Safety representatives should report their concerns and those of their members to management in writing. Use Chapter 7 above for ideas on how you can make sure that management gets things done.

Manual handling risk assessments

Safety representatives and workers should be involved in the risk assessment process, and check some of the following points:

• all manual handling operations have been covered, including work done away from the employer’s premises; for each job and each employee; problems identified have been fully reported; and improvements recommended as a result of the assessment will deal with problems (beware of quick, cheap and ineffective solutions)
• where a range of problems has been found, agreement on priorities for action, with an agreed timetable for improvements
• assessment is not an end in itself – the value of an assessment is to identify areas which need improvement to make work safer
• if hazardous manual handling operations cannot be avoided, employers must take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury to employees to the lowest level reasonably practicable
• if cost is an issue, point out that manual handling injuries cost employers money in lost working time, payments for sick leave and job cover, loss of trained and experienced staff; and successful compensation claims
• tackling manual handling problems is rarely a one-off exercise. It requires a sustained campaign with short, medium and long term objectives
• the best answer is to get rid of manual handling altogether, particularly high-risk tasks. In many cases this might not be possible immediately but it should not be assumed that lifting and carrying loads are an inevitable feature of work systems
• rights to information about new processes, including proposed workplace layouts. Involvement at the design stage gives the chance to eliminate problems before a new machine process or work system is installed
• mechanical devices may solve some lifting problems but it is important to make sure that new hazards are not introduced – involvement at the planning stage will prevent this problem
• increasing the unit size of loads, by using mechanical handling techniques, may present somebody else with a manual handling problem elsewhere in the workplace
• that adequate consideration has been given to women handling heavy loads during pregnancy or during the three months following confinement
• manual handling ability among men or women may appear to be a limiting factor, so make sure they are not banned from such work but that the work is modified to suit their abilities
• employers have a general duty to consider factors which might put workers at risk of injury such as their age, strength, state of health and degree of bodily development
• when changes occur in a worker’s health, either permanently (e.g. physical disablement) or temporarily (e.g. hernia or post-operative recovery), manual handling work should be suitably adapted or they should be allocated alternative work without loss of pay
• there is no such thing as a safe maximum weight. Weight is only one factor that needs to be considered in deciding how much force is required to move a given load (and therefore how much risk is involved under specific conditions)
• consider the overall manual handling dose to which the individual is subjected. Handling moderate-sized loads frequently poses as great a risk as handling heavier loads only occasionally
• the effect of manual handling on women’s health is often underestimated or ignored because men appear to be handling heavy loads. The injurious effects of repeated handling on muscles, joints and ligaments tend to be gradual and cumulative

Download the Manual Handling Checklist (PDF)

FURTHER INFORMATION (in alphabetical order)

Back Care

BackCare is an independent national charity for healthier backs. More information and resources

Equality and Human Rights Commission

More information

Ergonomics Society

News, resources and registered consultancies

Hazards magazine factsheets (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

• No. 61: Body Mapping
• No. 56: Ergonomics: Making the Job Fit
• No. 46: Pregnancy and Work
• No. 44: Risk Assessment: No Hazard – No Risk

£1.50 each for union subscribers. £6 for nonsubscribers

Hazards magazine website

Excellent news and resources on the Hazards web resource page

HSE manual handling assessment chart tool

HSE manual handling website

The HSE has a specific web page which draws together HSE information on manual handling

HSE priced and free publications on manual handling

• For all the latest documents containing general standards and guidance on manual handling, go to the HSE web page
• Alternatively, obtain a free copy of the latest HSE Books catalogue, CAT 34, by telephoning 01787 881 165

Labour Research Department (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

• Pain at Work: an LRD Guide to Musculoskeletal Disorders £4.50
• Women’s Health and Safety £4.75

London Hazards Centre (see Section 6.2 for contact details)

Risk Assessment: A Simple Standard

TUC (see Section 6.1 for contact details)

The TUC manual handling web page

• Your Back – Where Does it Hurt? Using Women’s Experiences to Beat Back Pain at Work (free leaflet)
• Essential information for safety representatives. Keep up to date on health and safety by reading Risks, the TUC’s weekly e-bulletin for safety representatives

Trade union information

• Many trade unions provide guidance on manual handling. The website addresses of all trade unions are on the TUC website
• Hazards magazine has listed the health and safety pages of most trade unions
• Contact your union, or visit your union’s website to find out if they produce any guidance on manual handling. For example, USDAW has produced a safety representative’s guide to preventing manual handling injuries