Got £3/4m to spare?
‘Thought not… but with litigation payments escalating as they are that’s how much it could cost in the event of a serious accident for putting an untrained employee on a forklift or into a risky manual handling task. Worse still… you could be the victim.
The Health & Safety Executive, responsible in the UK for such matters, calculates that there is room for significant reduction in the level of deaths and serious injuries incurred each year in the UK materials handling environment. And they’re right!
WIN, WIN!
Typically over two people a month are killed in the handling environment and over 5000 a year seriously injured, a high proportion of which could be avoided with better operator and staff training. Statistics prove that an appropriate training regime and a culture of high safety awareness is a win, win situation for employers and employees alike and should be considered a sound investment. It ought to be obvious that a well trained employee is an asset and an ill trained one a loose cannon and therefore a liability. Unfortunately, training is all too often seen as an unnecessary expense rather than an investment– prone to being purged at the first sign of budget pressure.
It’s a fact that money and time spent on training and the implementation of safety awareness programmes far from being a drag on profits is invariably repaid quickly through a reduction in staff absence and interruption of production (Sickness and absence costs the British economy £12billion each year) Furthermore, by applying ‘best practice’ policies to the implementation of training programmes there is every possibility that productivity will actually increase with their implementation, tipping the ‘payback potential’ into a profit centre rather than a liability.
Choosing a Training Provider
There are deep seated misconceptions about the causes of industrial accidents. If you think the responsibility for such injuries lies exclusively or mainly at the door of mechanised aids like forklifts and other warehouse trucks – think again. Upwards of 49% of all industrial injuries are musculoskeletal (affecting the back), caused largely by manual handling tasks.
So it pays to be careful when looking for potential banana skins in the safety environment and in the selection of suitable training providers. Success in the development and implementation of a training programme starts with management. Whilst it is by no means essential for the head of the team to have actually driven the equipment involved or experience the production process he or she must be aware of the relevant legislation and keep up with developments.
He or she must also know when and where to call on outside help and as we have highlighted the training requirement is all-embracing, often requiring specialist input.
Increasingly the law requires physical evidence of training provision and completion. Whether such records are maintained by the employer or the provider is immaterial providing it is maintained and readily available for inspection.
Stanley handling is a comprehensive provider of certificated training courses. Our trainers are approved by the relevant authorities in areas which include:
- Forklift novice and experienced operators * General materials handling
- Powered stairclimbers * Manual handling including risk assessments
In all cases we provide operator and trainer courses plus refresher courses and can provide the facility either on the operator’s premises or in our extensive training facility at Harpenden.
For full course availability click here or call 01582 767711