Whether they are working on behalf of a family moving house, or a business moving offices, removalists businesses must ensure that the health and safety of all concerned are a priority. When we say everyone, that includes not just the removalist’s employees but their clients too, plus any other individuals who might be in the immediate vicinity, such as other family members, the client’s employees, and to some extent, the general public.
This is not a matter that should be taken lightly. Apart from the moral obligation to have a duty of care, there are also the legal requirements that relate to removalists companies that come from state and federal health and safety legislation. Failure to follow and adhere to the applicable health and safety laws can lead to severe penalties, including imprisonment for the worse cases of negligence.
To ensure none of these penalties ever become a potential reality for you and your removalists business, here are 5 actions you can take.
#1: Have A Comprehensive Health And Safety Policy
The first element of compliance is to ensure your removalists business has a complete and comprehensive health and safety policy. This should explain in detail the responsibilities that both you as an employer, and your employees as individuals have to ensure that health and safety are maintained at all times. It should include the process for alerting the business to health and safety issues, what remedies are available to solve them, and penalties for those who flout your policy.
#2: Ensure All Staff Receive Proper Health And Safety Training
The worst thing that can happen concerning health and safety for any employer is for someone to be injured and it turns out they were working in a certain capacity but had not received the appropriate training to ensure they could work safely. This is why every removalists business should have a training program and training file for each employee whereby the training they receive as part of their induction and on an ongoing basis can be recorded.
#3: Provide All The Necessary Equipment To Your Employees For Safe Working
Whilst some businesses see the purchase of safety equipment as a cost, those that take the health and safety of their employees seriously, see it as an investment. Safety equipment within a removalists business can range from safety boots and overalls to lifting aids, straps, and even proper sheets to cover equipment as it is being moved. Any investment in safety equipment will ensure that one cost you will not have to bear is compensation due to a preventable injury.
#4: Carry Out A Full Health And Safety Risk Assessment For Each Job
Those removalists businesses that care little for health and safety will see this action as an inconvenience, but their real inconvenience might be appearing in court for breaching health and safety laws. From your experience of removals, you will know every location is different, each building is different, the access is different, and the items being moved are different. This calls for a site assessment on each job to note and make allowances for any job-specific health and safety risks.
#5: Pay Particular Attention To Your Industry-Specific Risks e.g. Lifting, Trips, Falls
This last action points to the fact that within the removalists sector there are particularly prevalent risks. Given that a lot of carrying is involved, it should mean that you give particular focus to potential health and safety risks that occur from lifting and carrying items. Specifically, these would be strains from lifting, injuries from tripping or falling, and the dangers which arise from larger items being dropped.
