As stated, it is the responsibility of your employer to uphold their duty of care towards your health and safety. This includes providing you with the necessary tools to complete your job safely. If you work in a warehouse or another similar environment where your job role includes heavy and continuous lifting, you should be provided with tools to help you complete the job. Some of the Health and Safety measures that your employer should put in place to ensure your safety include:

• Transfer boards used to assist in moving an item from one thing to another – such as from a trolley to a shelf.
• Trolleys to help move an item that is too heavy to carry from point A to point B.
• Gloves to ensure that you don’t suffer lesions, blisters or splinters in your hands.
• Heavy work boots to ensure that your toes are not injured if you drop an item. These boots will normally have steel toe caps in them.

Furthermore, your employer should provide you with clear health and safety training that outlines how to safely complete your job role. This training should cover:

• The main risk factors associated with manual handling and how injuries can occur within this line of work.
• How to use mechanical aids, such as the aforementioned trolleys, to assist with manual handling.
• How to carry out manual handling safely, including how to perform the best practice manual handling techniques.
• The learner trying out the techniques/performing the job role as taught through the training, so that the teacher can identify any problems and help to fix them.
• Any systems or routines that are relevant to the worker’s tasks and environment.

If your employer has failed to provide you with any necessary equipment or training that is needed to complete your job role to a sufficient and safe standard, they are failing to uphold their duty of care towards you. If you have been injured as a result of this negligence, you could be able to file a manual handling injury claim.

You could be injured because of the poor behaviour of a colleague. If a colleague fails to follow the health and safety procedures or general training that has been outlined by your employer and you are injured as a result, you could be able to claim compensation. Similarly, if they make poor errors of judgement or ‘cut corners’ within their job role, resulting in you suffering an injury, you could make a claim for manual handling injury compensation.

Manual Handling Injury Types

There are many different possible manual handling injuries that you could experience. However, certain injuries are more commonly associated with manual handling accidents than others. For example:

• Back injuries – if you do not complete your manual handling tasks through the correct techniques, you could be injured as a result. Alternatively, you could suffer a back injury if you try to lift an item that is too heavy for you. You should always only lift what is comfortable for you to hold and carry. You should not lift beyond your strength.
• Repetitive strain injury – this injury can occur if you have been working within a manual handling role for a long time and have been using an improper technique to complete the job role.
• Cuts and lacerations – you could potentially suffer a cut or breakage of the skin if the box/item that you are carrying contains something that is sharp that has not been properly sealed.
• Hand injuries – you could suffer an injury to your hand if you have not been provided with the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) for your job role. You should not have to carry something that is excessively hot without the use of gloves that help to protect against heat. Similarly, you should not be asked to carry something that has excessively sharp edges. Furthermore, if an item is too heavy to carry, you could potentially suffer an injury when hastily placing it down, such as crushing your fingers when you drop the item.
• Slip, trip and fall injuries – this injury type is very common in all industries. You could suffer a slip, trip and fall injury due to a wire or another item that has dangerous been placed in a walkway. Furthermore, if you are asked to carry something that is too heavy for you, you could potentially slip while carrying it. Wires should always be taped to the floor and items that could cause a hazard should be stored on a shelf or another appliance above the ground.
• Hernias – if you suffer repeated strain on the stomach area due to your job, you could potentially suffer a hernia as a result. Most people who experience a hernia need to get surgery to solve the issue. Therefore, this type of injury can be quite painful and serious as it often means that you need to take time off from work to recovery from the surgery. Once again, you should not be asked to carry something that is too heavy for you because this could result in you suffering a hernia due to the continuous strain that is being placed on your core.
• Foot injuries – if you have not been provided with strong work boots, you could suffer a foot injury. This is most likely to occur if you drop something on your foot while not wearing work boots but it could also occur if you step on a hazard like broken glass that has not been cleaned up. Even if you are wearing work boots, you could be injured if the item that you drop is excessively heavy. Therefore, you should not be carrying an item like that. Instead, you should use a tool to assist you, such as a trolley. Foot injuries related to manual handling are normally broken or fractures bones.

If you’ve suffered any of the injuries mentioned above or another type of injury, due to manual handling accident that wasn’t your fault, you could be able to claim. In order to claim you will need to provide evidence that the accident was caused by someone else’s negligent behaviour. For example, you should take photographs of your injuries and the accident scene to highlight the problem/hazard that caused your accident.