3. Taking responsibility

The overarching health and safety legislation is the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. This act gives specific responsibilities that every employer and employee must carry out by law. Briefly this is as follows:

You Must:

• Use systems of work provided Example
• Inform your employer about any physical condition that may affect your ability to undertake manual handling operations safely
• Report accidents and incidents to your line manager

You Must Not:

• Interfere with health and safety equipment Example
• Put others at risk Example
• Work outside your remit or level of expertise Example

The main piece of legislation for manual handling at work is the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR). In brief this states the following:

• Avoid unnecessary handling tasks
• Assess the risk using a TILE assessment
• Reduce the risk
• Review the task to ensure the risk was reduced
• Train for safe practice, inform, organise and supervise

The MHOR defines manual handling operations as lifting, lowering, carrying, supporting, pushing and pulling of loads.