‘Watch Your Back – a Guide to Lifting and other Manual Tasks in the Hotel Industry’
Fifty percent of all injuries sustained by hotel workers are musculoskeletal related. The majority of these injuries are caused whilst undertaking some type of manual handling (now called manual tasks) activity. ‘Musculoskeletal disorders’, as they’re called, generally encompass injuries to joints, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, nerves and tissue. They can be caused by either a sudden trauma or wear and tear over a prolonged period of time. Many of these injuries can be prevented by ensuring that staff know the risks involved and understand the safest way of doing things when lifting or moving items around the workplace. A good time for a worker to learn about this is during the induction phase at the beginning of their employment.
The Queensland Hotels Association, with funding by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (Small Business Program Grants Scheme), has developed a manual tasks handbook specifically for the hotel industry and targeted at small business. This handbook, aptly named ‘Watch Your Back – a Guide to Lifting and other Manual Tasks in the Hotel Industry’, is a resource that can be used by anyone within the industry to help get the message across. The handbook has been developed with a focus on the younger demographic, who constitute the biggest injury risk group in the sector.
The handbook ranges from highlighting the major manual tasks related hazards within our industry and how to manage them, to the nature of typical injuries sustained and correct methods of lifting and moving objects in the workplace. All hoteliers should be encouraged to use this resource.
A free copy of this publication is available for downloading – just click on the link below. A summarised PowerPoint presentation is also available.
