Manual handling - questions and answers

Site topics: Making health and safety work for your business, Manual handling

Manual handling relates to the moving of items either by lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing or pulling.

What is the maximum weight that can be lifted?

Where possible manual lifting should be avoided.

There is no legal maximum weight that a person can safely lift. Lifting any weight can cause injury and much depends on the object being lifted, the environment, the shape of the object, the physical characteristics of the lifter and the distance of the object from the spine.

An employer must have risk assessments on manual handling as required by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000, and have developed a safe system of work for manual handling operations as required by the Health and Safety at Work (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. An employee should be able to ask for the findings of a risk assessment. The risk assessment will define the necessary control measures.

Should an employer only consider lifting and lowering?

No, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations also apply to objects being pushed and pulled across a surface.

Is my employer required to provide training for manual handling?

Yes, your employer is required to take reasonable steps to reduce the risk of injury to those employees undertaking manual handling operations.

Also, an employer is required to provide information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to protect a person’s health and safety arising from manual handling tasks.

Does a two person lift mean twice as much can be lifted?

No. Handling by two or more people may make possible an operation that is beyond the capability of one person or reduce the risk of injury to a single handler.

During a lifting operation the proportion of the load that is borne by each member of the team will inevitably vary to some extent. Such variation is likely to be more pronounced on sloping or uneven ground.

What is the correct lifting technique?

There is no single correct way to lift. The technique for lifting will depend on many things such as the weight and size of the object. For example, it would be easier to pick up something that is boxed and has handholds rather than an awkwardly shaped object or where the weight is unevenly distributed.

The content of any training in good handling technique should be tailored to the particular situation or individual circumstances under which the manual handling takes place. Published best practice guidance relating to manual handling can be found in the Resources section below.

Resources

Key Legislation

Please note that these links are to the original legislation, visitors should verify for themselves whether legislation is in force or whether it has been amended or repealed by subsequent legislation.