Guidelines On Occupational Safety And Health In The Office

lying on the ground or jutting out into aisles or because of poorly maintained floor surfaces. Falls can be from ladders or from standing on chairs to reach an object.

Many of these accidents can be avoided by simple planning and good housekeeping.

• Traffic ways and aisles should be well lit, and be kept clear of material, equipment, rubbish and electric leads

• Floor should be level and the use of mats discouraged. Spilled liquids and anything else dropped on the floor should be immediately picked up or cleaned

• Free standing fittings should be completely stable or secured to the wall or floor. Filing cabinets should be placed so that they do not open in to aisles and should never be left with cabinets drawers open. For stability load cabinets starting from the bottom and do not open more than one drawer at a time

• Office machine and equipment should be kept in good working order. Equipment using hand-fed process such as electric staplers and paper guillotines should be guarded and staff trained in their proper use

• Many pieces of equipment using electricity can mean trailing cables, overloaded circuits, broken plugs and sockets. Ensure that these dangers are seen to by qualified personnel

MANUAL HANDLING

Manual handling is a term used to describe everyday type activities such as carrying, stacking, pushing, pulling, rolling, sliding, lifting or lowering loads. For office workers this can include task such as moving boxes of stores, filing, setting equipment from cupboards and filling the photocopying machine with paper.

A common office hazard is the manual movement of loads leading to back injuries and pain in hand, wrist and neck. To reduce the likelihood of these types of accidents the requirements are:

• Remove the need for manual handling that could be the cause of injury

• Identify those tasks where manual handling cannot be avoided and assess the risk of injury

• provided manual handling training to workers who need it (messengers, service attendants etc.) and give them information on the weights being lifted and how to plan a lift

If cabinets, desks or other heavy office equipment have to be moved, do take particular precautions which would include providing hand truck or trollies and using team lifting. More details, please refer to Guidelines on Manual Handling.