Back Injuries to Staff Cost Companies Millions of Pounds Every Year
The Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council compensated one of its employees named David Barber who hurt his back while moving a set of broken swimming pool steps. Barber had been working as a supervisor at the council-run sports centre for 20 years. His complaints regarding the damaged steps had failed to attract the attention of his employers, who had told him that repairing the steps was not their priority.
UNISON, the union of which Barber was a member, appealed to all the employers to ensure proper training facilities for their staff and a need for assessing risk. This, according to the union, would go a long way in preventing back injuries – considered the commonest workplace injuries – which cost companies millions of pounds in compensation every year.
Barber’s employers initially refused to admit liability for his injury, but paid up £50,000 after the proceedings were put in motion against them.
Commenting on the incident, UNISON’s Head of Local Government Heather Wakefield said that employers needed to train their staff in a manner that would help avert back injury accidents. She also advocated risk assessment that would go a long way in helping employers who end up paying so much for back injury cases every year. Employers need to provide appropriate training for their employees to reduce both lost time through work related injuries and/or potential employer’s liability claims. Manual handling training would enable organisation to be compliant with the requirement to train persons involved in manual handling activities.
