Employee’s Responsibilities Under Current Legislation & Official Guidance For Moving & Storing Materials & Manual Handling

Storing Materials

Safe and efficient materials storage depends on good co-operation and co-ordination between everyone involved including, client, contractors, suppliers and the construction trades. On all sites the arrangements for materials storage should be communicated to workers during their induction and through toolbox talks. The following good practice helps to reduce the risk of injury from storage:

• Storage areas – There should be designated storage areas for plant, materials, waste, flammable substances eg foam plastics, flammable liquids and gases such as propane and hazardous substances eg pesticides and timber treatment chemicals. These should be located a safe distance from the workforce and the correct storage container should be used i.e. bunded container to prevent leaks or COSHH cage to prevent access.
• Pedestrian routes – do not allow storage to ‘spread’ in an uncontrolled manner on to footpaths and other walkways. Do not store materials where they obstruct access routes or where they could interfere with emergency escape;
• Flammable materials – will usually need to be stored away from other materials and protected from accidental ignition;
• Storage at height – if materials are stored at height eg on top of a container, make sure necessary guard rails are in place if people could fall when stacking or collecting materials or equipment. Storing heavy items high up can be dangerous at they are harder to safely grip and lift. Heavy items should be stored securely to avoid the risk of overbalancing. If materials are stored at height make sure necessary guard rails are in place if people could fall when stacking or collecting materials or equipment (It is not recommended that heavy items should be stored at ground level as lifting these places a strain on workers).
• Tidiness – keep all storage areas tidy, whether in the main compound or on the site itself; and
• Deliveries – plan deliveries to keep the amount of materials on site to a minimum.

Manual Handling & Moving

Employees have general health and safety duties under the manual handling operations regulations to:

• Follow appropriate systems of work laid down for their safety
• Make proper use of equipment provided for their safety
• Co-operate with their employer on health and safety matters
• Take care to ensure that their activities do not put others at risk

Team Lifting

Team manual handling is one way to help reduce the risks of manual handling injuries, as lifting as a team shares the load amongst multiple people. In addition it’s also an effective way of moving items which could be hard to see around if you were lifting them on your own. 

• Same principles apply when lifting on your own in terms of body position
• Communication between workers carrying out the lift is essential 
• Someone needs to be in charge of the lift to co-ordinate the lift
• Team members should ideally be of a similar height and strength