Employment and Cumulative Back Syndromes

If you work in an environment where your job includes a lot of manual labour and physical work, your employer should have certain protections in place in order to decrease your exposure to harm.

All employers have a duty of care towards their employees to protect them in the workplace. Therefore, if you feel that your employer is not implementing the steps written below, then they are not meeting their duty of care towards your safety and this should be challenged.

The main protections that an employer should put in place within a physically demanding workplace include:

• Training for your job – this training should also follow specific manual handling guidelines. You should receive extensive training when you begin your job so that you can complete any tasks safely. If you feel that you still need more training at any time during your tenure at your job, you should ask your manager for further training.
• Regular risk assessments of the manual handling aspects of your job to ensure that the procedures are performed in the best way for your health. Risk assessments of manual handling tasks – these risk assessments should ensure that the procedures you have to perform are completed within a way that fits the manual handling training and guidelines for your industry.
• Take a look at the environment within which you work – your employer should assess the environment within which you work to ensure that there are potential dangers. For example, if you have to move through an uncomfortably narrow space or if you have to place items on an unstable shelf, this is unsafe.
• You should not be asked to carry and move more weight than is safe for you to carry based upon regulations. You should not be asked to carry something without the use of tools if tools, such as a trolley, are necessary to move that item safely. Furthermore, you should not be asked to move something alone that should be carried by multiple people.

Further training, guidelines and regulations that should be applied to a manual handling work environment, are outlined by the Health and Safety Executives’ manual handling page.

Professions That Can Cause Cumulative Back Syndrome

If you work in any sort of job role that includes a large amount of manual labour, you are more likely to suffer from cumulative back syndrome than those who don’t. Some of the jobs and professions that might cause you to suffer from cumulative back syndrome include:

• Furniture removal workers or delivery drivers who load and unload large loads of cargo.
• Care assistants who have to move patients – such as to the shower, from and to beds and into and out of wheelchairs.
• Workers in warehouses/distribution centres who are involved in manual labour tasks.
• ]Airport Luggage handlers.
• Supermarket workers who have to push trolleys, stack shelves or push cages.

This list of jobs is not extensive. If you work in any sort of role that involves a large amount of manual handling or physical labour, you could suffer from cumulative back syndrome. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the symptoms that indicate that you suffer from cumulative back syndrome.

Symptoms Of Cumulative Back Syndrome

There are a lot of cumulative back syndrome symptoms. As previously stated, cumulative back syndrome is a condition that develops over a long period of time due to poor health and safety conditions in the workplace. However, there are four symptoms that are incredibly common indicators that you are suffering from cumulative back syndrome:

• An aching sensation in your back.
• An inability to stand up straight without suffering from pain.
• A limited sense of movement in your back and an inability to flex your back.
• A shooting or stabbing pain that can be present within your foot or throughout your entire leg.

Compensation For Cumulative Back Syndrome

The amount of compensation that you can claim for cumulative back syndrome will be specific to the circumstances of your case. The amount of compensation that you will be awarded in your case will be determined by looking at two categories: general damages and special damages

General Damages

General damages refers to the physical and emotional damage caused by your injuries or illness. In the simplest terms, it refers to compensation for pain and suffering. This type of compensation also covers any losses of amenity, aka a decrease in ability to function, that has arisen from the injuries/illness sustained in an accident or prolonged negative situation. To view estimates for personal injury types, visit our compensation calculator.

Special Damages

Special damages compensation refers to compensation that covers the financial losses and expenses incurred as a result of an accident or medical negligence. Special damages could help to reclaim a loss of income if you have been unable to work due to your food-related illness. Similarly, if you have had to pay to go to a medical appointment or if you had to pay to travel to a medical appointment, you could be able to claim these medical costs back.