Browsing: Manual handling | Page 21

Employers can reduce the severity and number of workplace injuries by adopting three strategies that usually apply to professional athletes, a people risk expert says.

An OHS manager "undermined the integrity" of his company's pre-employment process by overriding a doctor's finding that a prospective employee could safely perform a role, but didn't breach equal opportunity laws, a tribunal has found.

An employer had been entitled to rely on an experienced subcontractor to perform a lifting task safely, a court of appeal has found in stripping the injured subcontractor of more than $820,000 in damages.

BHP Billiton has halved the musculoskeletal illness rate at one of its Western Australian assets through a multi-faceted program based on employee input and the hierarchy of controls, according to its latest sustainability report.

Systems of work that involve bending and twisting while lifting objects don't necessarily create a risk of injury that employers are required to eliminate, a superior court has found in rejecting a worker's damages appeal.

A host employer breached the Victorian manual handling regulations by allowing psychiatric patients to have access to a jug of water, which could be used as a weapon and force workers to become involved in a "physical intervention", the County Court has found.

A worker has successfully sued his brother's company for nearly $650,000 in damages for a back injury he sustained after the company failed to provide him with adequate mechanical assistance for manual tasks.

Workplace housekeeping is crucial to keeping workers safe, and involves much more than sweeping and removing obstacles, according to a safety expert, who outlines five steps to developing a successful housekeeping program.

Safety strategies focusing on materials handling and falls could significantly reduce the high injury rate among firefighters, Australian researchers have found.

A NSW delivery driver has been awarded nearly $1 million in damages for a serious ankle injury, which he sustained after a construction site supervisor directed him to unload heavy materials on an uneven surface instead of a nearby loading dock.