Cut weight limit, say bag handlers
Cut weight limit, say bag handlers
Baggage handlers nationwide are campaigning for the maximum luggage weight limit allocated to each airline passenger to be cut. Unite, the workers' union, says baggage handlers want the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to reduce the maximum weight limit from 32kg to 23kg a bag. It says the number of accidents nationally caused by workers shifting heavy bags has increased in the last year by 17 per cent. Brendan Gold, Unite civil aviation spokesperson, said: 'Unite is determined to reduce the number of accidents among our members who have to shift heavy bags at ever faster rates. That means reducing the weight of individual items to 23kg. We want MPs and the airlines to put pressure on the Health and Safety Executive' (Risks 325). MP Paul Goggins has promised to lobby HSE. Mr Goggins, MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East, was given a tour of baggage handling areas at Manchester Airport when he went to meet union officials. He said: 'The time has come to make a change. I will be urging the Health and Safety Executive to reduce the maximum weight of passenger baggage to 23kg.' Baggage handling companies have been prosecuted recently for failing to introduce adequate manual handling aids, including baggage conveyors (Risks 322).
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