The directive states that if the need for the manual handling of loads by workers cannot be avoided, the employer should reduce the risks involved. This includes organising workstations in such a way as to make the activity as safe as possible and assessing preferably in advance the health and safety conditions of the type of work involved — in particular examining the characteristics of loads.
Employers must ensure that workers receive proper training and information on how to handle loads correctly and the risks they might be open to, particularly if these tasks are not performed correctly. Furthermore, the use of physical effort may risk injury if it is too strenuous, likely to result in a sudden movement of the load or made with the body in an unstable posture.
As well as the requirements for a general risk assessment, there is a requirement in the Manual Handling Operations Regulations as amended to carry out a risk assessment on manual handling tasks. The main areas to focus on are the task, load, working environment and individual capability.
The HSE and local authorities are responsible for enforcing health and safety legislation. Each has a range of tools at their disposal in seeking to secure compliance with the law and ensure a proportionate response to offences. For more serious offences, inspectors may serve improvement notices and prohibition notices and they may prosecute or in Scotland, report to the Procurator Fiscal with a view to prosecution.
An employer should conduct regular risk assessments, provide your employees with regular training and provide suitable equipment to minimise staff engagement with manual handling activities.
Employers are legally required to:. If possible you should not carry out any manual handling tasks. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations define it as 'any transporting or supporting of a load including the lifting, putting down, pushing, pulling, carrying or moving thereof by hand or by bodily force'.
Mechanical handling aids can reduce the risk of injury when used correctly. Even simple aids such as trolleys, sack trucks and wheelbarrows can be used to move items and reduce the likelihood of injury. It is better to push rather than pull, and to use body weight and leg muscles to do the work.
You also need to ensure the load is kept under control, particularly on slopes. In some cases more sophisticated manual handling aids may be required, such as cranes, hoists, pallet trucks, conveyors and fork lift trucks.
You need to remember that handling aids might eliminate many of the manual handling risks, although their use will introduce other risks and these must be assessed. Additionally some regulations require that many of these items receive a periodic statutory inspection on some of their components.
For more information, please read our sections on workplace inspections and equipment maintenance. Team lifting is sometimes used to reduce manual handling risks, however it needs to be coordinated properly.
You should try and make sure that those lifting are around the same height and build. Therefore, the load that a team can handle safely is less than the sum of the loads that the individual team members could cope with when working alone.
As an approximate guide the capability of a two person team is two-thirds the sum of their individual capabilities and for a three person team the capability is half the sum of their individual capabilities. Teams of more than four are unlikely to work successfully.
There is no single correct way to lift. The technique for lifting will depend on many things such as the weight and size of the object. For example, it would be easier to pick up something that is boxed and has handholds than something awkwardly shaped or where the weight is unevenly distributed.
The content of any training in good handling technique should be tailored to the particular situation or individual circumstances under which the manual handling takes place.
HSE has published guidance which contains illustrations of good handling practice please see resources.
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