Work Fatality highlights the need for Ongoing Manual Handling Training

Feb. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- The importance of training all members of staff in manual handling techniques has been highlighted in a case from 2008 which saw a worker killed on his first day in the job as a result of a lack of manual handling training and poor risk assessment procedures being in place.

The company in question has just recently been fined £80,000 and ordered to pay £16,000 costs after the man was crushed by a large glass sheet which he was helping to unload. For most companies, penalties like this would be a death blow to the business, let alone accounting for the terrible human cost involved.

Worker safety should always be paramount in the place of work, which is why Alistair Bromhead Ltd provides manual handling train the trainer courses for people and businesses throughout the UK. In this particular case, the court ruled that the people who were charged with carrying out the unloading of large glass sheets needed more training on how to perform the task and that proper planning ahead could have prevented the accident from occurring.

Removing the Risks

If the company in question had sent at least one of their members of staff on a two day City & Guilds manual handling train the trainer course, such as the one run by Alistair Bromhead Ltd, the newly qualified instructor would have been skilled in how to assess the risks involved in such a job and how to safely execute the unloading. The victim in this case was an agency worker and it was his first day on the job. Having an onsite manual handling instructor would have meant that the worker could have been trained in house before starting work, thus removing the need to send the new member of staff away for training at additional cost.

In the long term, manual handling instructor training could save your business thousands of pounds and make the place of work safe for all employees. Do not overlook your responsibilities as an employer when it comes to workplace safety and training.

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Alistair Bromhead Ltd delivers the 2 day City & Guilds Manual Handling Train the Trainer course which provides the skills, knowledge, techniques, confidence and course material to run your own manual handling training sessions for the safe handling of materials and goods. Visit http://www.abromhead.co.uk for more information.