Do we actually have any health and safety protections/ rules in this job?

[tramssirhc]

Do we actually have any health and safety protections/ rules in this job?

Is there a particular thing that you're referring to? Every company is legally obliged to follow health and safety laws. Of course things don't always go that way but things need reporting if so.

Heya thanks
I meant in terms of whether there are still limits to maximum weight / sizes of parcels we can be expected to take?
And whether the company has a duty to provide manual handling equipment?
(E.g trolleys as in my depot theres not enough for everyone and the majority of those we have are damaged
I was just wondering since injuries are so frequent in my delivery office despite only having a small number of staff. And im not sure what the rules/ are rights actually are.

The CWU agreed to workers taking anything and everything. The legislation requires control of risks such as lifting and this is controlled by the use of the dynamic risk assessment. There are limits on weights that have not changed since they were agreed some time ago. You will see equipment with weight limits on it.

Equipment is provided such as high capacity and light weight trollies. Unless it is agreed otherwise the use of a LWT is mandatory on deliveries. The introduction of LWT's was the control for the risk of carrying weights. Where a bag is to be carried it should be weighed and the weight recorded with weights reducing thought the delivery span.

Where an item is identified as too heavy measures should be put in place such as a two person lift or the use of a parcel truck. Items outside of the limits (basically bigger than a York) should be dealt with by Parcelforce. Heavy and oversized items are notified to offices everyday so there should be no surprises.

Thanks!
Out of curiosity do many offices actually use the trolleys on all their loops?
In mine they are only used if unavoidable as it tends to take longer doing a loop with a trolley vs carrying a bad so theres not really time

And again do depots have scales installed?
I know mine doesn't have anything for us to weigh stuff with.

Just wondered whether these conditions were widespread throught the company or just limited to my area?

Yes workers do use the equipment and it should not take any longer as the duty will have been planned for the use of the equipment.

All workplaces should have scales as they are referenced in the risk assessment for controlling the risks from lifting.

[yellowbelly]

Yes workers do use the equipment and it should not take any longer as the duty will have been planned for the use of the equipment.

All workplaces should have scales as they are referenced in the risk assessment for controlling the risks from lifting.

Our scales are gathering dust on the top of an IPS frame, haven't been PAT tested for about 10 years and are the size of a set of kitchen scales!

[ted_e_bear]

Yes workers do use the equipment and it should not take any longer as the duty will have been planned for the use of the equipment.

All workplaces should have scales as they are referenced in the risk assessment for controlling the risks from lifting.

Our scales are gathering dust on the top of an IPS frame, haven't been PAT tested for about 10 years and are the size of a set of kitchen scales!

I remember back in the day you had to weigh your bags and record the weights, presumably to protect yourself and so rm had evidence that no one had overweight bags, obviously took a while waiting to get to the scales plus the numpties with the massive bags to save valuable seconds using bag drops just put lower weights anyway.

We had one particular clown who could barely walk out of the office his bag was that heavy, the reasoning was so he didn't get delayed waiting for the bag drop driver as he'd started early