Roll On

I would just like to know where my boyfriend stands at work. He works in a warehouse, where he is constantly having to lift and carry rolls of rubber, which can most of the time be on average of 70 kg per roll. He and two other workers can be expected to unload and dispatch tons of this every week. There is no lifting equipment to help them with this. They are also expected to climb onto stillages which can be stacked three to four stillages high as the aisles are to narrow to get a fork lift truck down, to pick these rolls of rubber. Is this legal for his boss to expect this from him. They are always complaining of bad backs, and one has just today called an ambulance as he had injured his back trying to unload these rolls off a container. Please can you give any advice to this matter.

The Health and Safety Executive state that The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 set no specific requirements such as weight limits.

They leave it down to companies to do a Health & Safety Assessment of working activities. He needs to talk to his manager about the weights and how it is affecting his job. It may be easier if colleagues all mention this.