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34-35_ARENA_Spring2016_Arena_A5 11/02/2016 10:06 Page 2 arena t l a h He Send your health questions to the .uk arena team at: [email protected] Accident book Q I work hurt lifting my back some last boxes, week at when I reported this to my manager she refused to put it in the accident book saying she thought I had hurt myself outside of work. Is she allowed to do this? Your manager should not stop you as the injured person from putting anything into the accident book. Under social security laws, employers must have an accident reporting system in place. It is the responsibility of the worker to ask for an entry to be made. The entry should record the brief details of what happened in the worker’s own words. If the manager disagrees with the worker’s version of events, they can add their own comments but should not interfere with what the worker wants recorded. If she continues to stop you entering information into the accident book get your Usdaw rep to help you to write a letter to the employer stating all the details of the accident, time, place, what happened and keep a copy for yourself. Rain damage the recent Q Following our warehouse, heavy rain, toilets and part of the main shop were flooded with a couple of inches of water. The manager has told us to come in and clean up the mess. Can they order us to do this and is it safe? It will depend on the scale of the problem and whether the instruction to clean up is ‘reasonable’. If you are expected to clean, your manager needs to make sure you have appropriate protective equipment – boots, overalls, gloves and possibly masks or face protection if there is a risk of splashing. and your h Your healt People should cover any l rk is a vita o cuts with waterproof plasters safety at w ice. aw’s serv and should have access to part of Usd e visit: water to wash their hands more advic For rg.uk when they’ve finished. If w.o any electrics have been www.usd n a dsafety in contact with the flood ealtha /h water, it should be checked by a competent electrician before workers move back into the area. If there is serious contamination or a really major clean-up operation is needed then specialist cleaners may be required. Height hazard work Q I shelves in at retail. my store I think are the too high. It is difficult to take stock off them especially when, for example. cereal is always 3-4 cases high and so are things like nappies and tined fruit. After around an hour my back is killing me and I’m getting moaned at because I’m ‘too slow’. How high should shelves be? There are no rules on how high shelves can be, but there are rules on preventing manual handling injuries to workers. If the shelves are used by customers there will be practical limits to the height – because most customers need to be able to reach the goods themselves. However, there is a big difference between a customer lifting down one box of cereal and a shop worker having to handle all the boxes on the shelf to replenish and to rotate stock. Some retailers also use the capping shelf on top of the rack as a storage space for extra stock which means workers have to be able to put cases up there and to retrieve them safely.