Company fined for failure to reduce manual handling risks

HSE Press Release E056:04 - 5 May 2004

Willowcrete Manufacturing Company Limited of Sunderland, Tyne & Wear were fined £1000 for breaches of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations at Sunderland Magistrates Court on Tuesday 20 April.

The prosecutions followed an Inspection of the site during an investigation carried out into an unrelated incident. The company manufacture and install a range of fencing products and they have a small concrete shed at their site in Sunderland where they manufacture concrete posts and lintels ranging in weight from 13.16kgs to 234.78kgs when dry. The casting process for these blocks and lintels included a number of operations that warranted a manual handling assessment but no such assessments had been carried out.

All of the products were lifted manually and no measures had been taken to reduce the risk of injury associated with those tasks. It was estimated by HSE Ergonomists that the largest blocks would have weighed approximately 265kg when they were being produced in large wooden moulds. During the inspection by an Inspector and two Ergonomists, a Prohibition Notice was served preventing large weights from being lifted by employees and an Improvement Notice was served requiring manual handling assessments to be carried out.

The company pleaded guilty to breaches of Regulations 4(1)(b)(i) and 4(1)(b)(ii) and were fined £500 for each regulation, and additional costs of £2210.

Following the intervention by HSE, the company installed roller tables in the concrete shed that have significantly reduced the amount of manual handling by employees. Manual Handling training has also been provided for the employees in the concrete shed and lifting charts are displayed on the walls.

Almost a third of all industrial injuries are caused by manual handling accidents. And they are part of a much larger problem: an estimated 1.1 million people in Britain suffer from work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), including those caused by manual handling. MSDs affect muscles, joints, tendons and other parts of the musculoskeletal system. They account for around half of all work-related ill health. As a result of MSDs an estimated 12.3 million working days were lost in 2002/2003, at a cost to society of £5.7 billion. These distressing figures are the reason why the Health and Safety Commission have designated musculoskeletal disorders as a Priority Programme.

Notes to editors

Regulation 4(1)(b)(i) and 4(1)(b)(ii) of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 state that each employer shall:

'where it is not reasonably practicable to avoid the need for his employees to undertake any manual handling operations at work which involve a risk of their being injured -

(i) make a suitable and sufficient assessment of all such manual handling operations to be undertaken by them, having regard to the factors which are specified in column 1 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations and considering the questions which are specified in the corresponding entry in column 2 of that Schedule,

(ii) take appropriate steps to reduce the risk of injury to those employees arising out of their undertaking any such manual handling operations to the lowest level reasonably practicable.

The Priority Programme aims to reduce the incidence of work-related illness involving musculoskeletal disorders, and reduce the number of working days lost due to these disorders. The key messages about MSDs are:

(iii) you can do things to prevent or minimise MSDs;

(iv) the prevention measures are cost effective and;

(v) you cannot prevent all MSDs, so early reporting of symptoms, proper treatment and suitable rehabilitation are essential.

For more about the MSD Priority Programme, and other useful information about MSD, see the MSD pages on the HSE website: http://www.hse.gov.uk/msd

The maximum fine for a breach of the individual Manual Handling Operations Regulations in a Magistrates Court is £5000.

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