Posted By Andrew Shaw
Hi,

It has recently come to my attention via anonymous tip off that a member of our office furniture installation team has, what was described to me as a "Glass Back". Emotive language I know, but the the person reporting the alleged injury was trying to prove a point. This individual has been a member of the insallation team for about 7 years and has never had any formal Manual Handling training. I Know, this is a disgrace, I've only been in post since the 01/08/08

I was also told that the person involved would be likely to deny the injury through a fear of loosing his job (this wouldn't happen) or at least being asked to take on lighter duties, possibly supervisory.

I'm looking for some advice as to how to proceed.
Some form of professional medical examination seems to be an option but I'm concerned that this individual may be able to fake not having a bad back as easily as some can fake having one.

I'm mindful of a potentially large claim possibly years in the future if this situation is allowed to go unchecked.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

Andrew

Posted By MickN
Talk to your HR department first, assuming you've got one. This is as much about HR as it is safety. Tread carefully and remember you don't want to fall foul of employment rights.

Mick

Posted By b-s
I suggest getting the RA's and training done and speaking openly with this man, if he say's he has no problem then so be it, if however he "confesses" then you need to do something about it not only to cover your self and the compnay but to ensure that this chap gets some intervention treatment, then obviously re-role him if ness.

I think H&S has a bad case of the OOOOOH'S and to overcome this we all need to know what we are talking about (knowledge)and when doing our jobs we need to convince people that we are there for them first and that H&S is about enabling work not a bl**dy excuse for not doing it.

Posted By Ian Futcher
I have to

Posted By Andrew Shaw
Thanks for all responses.

HR have been informed.

And I agree with various contributors who have highlighted that this is only an alleged problem.

The difficulty, if deciding to act, was that initial contact..... Excuse me, I hear you have a bad back.....

Thanks again.

Posted By Kieran J Duignan
Andrew

To the extent that back injury risk management is relevant to your larger programme of risk management, you can reasonably institute an assessment and training programme annuallly for ALL staff for whom handling loads is a key performance indicator.

The assessment can validly consist of a visit to a gym in which you ask each 'manual loader' to carry out a series of lifting tasks on a graded set of free weights. From that, you can gather data on capability, training needs and vulnerability to injury.

This process can be standardised with reference to British norms of anthrompetric data,

Any personalisation then arises solely out of a risk assessment and is 100% compliant with disability discrimination and employment rights laws as well as relevant safety laws.

Posted By Bob Shillabeer
Do the simple thing, ask the guy the question 'Have you got as problem with your back' and go from there. Don't say how you got the idea he has a back problem just have a friendly chat and reassdure him it is unofficial and show you care about his position by explaining that if he has aback problem you want to help sort it out becuase it is not just his work that could be affected but his general health and life style. It is not possible to hide a back problem, it may be easy to fake one, but not hide one. Then go from there, show you care about the guy not just the company.