Having recently joined and starting out on my H&S career I am looking for some help when it comes to manual handling. The person who did my job previously did a lot (!) of excellent paperwork but it seems not to have filtered through to how the teams work, so I am looking to get some clear procedures in place re weights of items. As a business we move items on construction sites, like units, reception desks, counters etc and at the moment there is no way of telling how heavy these items are. I have asked for the items to be labelled with approx weights, but I have received push back to say that there is no need as the individual performing the manual handling task can simply perform a test lift and decide if it is too heavy for him or not and no further action is required in terms of labelling, they also stated that should the lifter injure themselves this is their own liability and responsibility and there is no come back to the company as we have given them annual manual handling training. I want to walk the line of a balanced H&S approach but am concerned that this really is just passing the buck. I would be very interested in how others approach this and what the opinion is on labelling so I can ensure I do the right thing to prevent injury, whilst allowing the teams to work as quickly and efficiently as possible. Any help very much appreciated..

Agree with the above post, you can't put the liability for injuries on the worker unless they have blatantly ignored training or instruction. Putting weights on objects has been done in some environments by colour coding. However this is for a small range of objects and only for guidance. The lifting ability will differ from person to person, also the weight of the object is only one factor which determines the difficulty of the lift.

Jay's link above is interesting. In that this is slightly different to what the guidance in L23 (MHOR 2002) states. "Information on the load 172 Regulation 4(1)(b)(iii) can be complied with in a variety of ways, depending on the circumstances. 173 The requirement to provide ‘general indications’ of the weight and nature of the loads to be handled should form part of any basic training, so that employees have sufficient information to carry out the operations they are likely to be asked to do. 174 Where it is reasonably practicable, employers should give precise information. For employers whose businesses originate loads (manufacturers, packers etc) the simplest way of providing this information is by marking it on the loads." I would suggest that doing a risk assessment and then including this in practical training would be enough as you are not the originator of the object to be handled. Ian