Being forced to train for something i dont want to do

donnajunkie

ceridwen wrote: »

Quite possibly so - ie for the staff to be trained on "other duties"....but in OP's position the thought would simply never have occurred to me that they might even think of me ever doing any lifting duties.

It would be so obvious that I was a woman that I wouldnt expect to have to spell out to them what this meant - ie most women have lower physical strength/cant do/shouldnt even be expected to do heavy manual labour (eg lifting). I would expect them to just take one look at me and think "Woman...typical womans build - she wont have the strength. Now where are some strong looking men without any known health problems that would preclude lifting jobs?"

I'm not being sexist there - as Mother Nature has made MOST women physically weaker than MOST men and one cant argue with any physical "facts" - however much one might like to...

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I suspect the reason that the older women arent being expected to do this is not because they are older per se - but because they would give anyone short shrift that expected them to have a typical "masculine" level of strength. The management cynically think that younger women regard themselves as exactly equal to men - even in the respects that they arent (like physical strength). For the record - I'm an older woman myself - hence my sheer astonishment at anyone even thinking of me doing any job requiring physical strength.

Can you access any data proving the standard different "strength levels" between mens bodies and womens bodies anywhere? There must be something somewhere on the Internet that says, for instance, "the average man can lift x lbs easily", "the average woman can only lift two-thirds (or whatever proportion is true) of that amount". Someone somewhere will have done some safety research on this and proven that women tend to have less physical strength.

some men dont have great physical strength but are still expected to do it.

ceridwen

I've found a suitable document re "manual handling".



http://www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/safety/risk/manual_handling.pdf

See page 10 of this - and it states there exactly what the limits are and they are a LOT LOT lower for women than men.

If I were you:
a. Are you in the relevant Union? If not - then join it pronto.

b. Print out 2 copies of this guide - one for you to keep and the other for the Union to hand to your employer, with a covering note drawing their attention in particular to page 10.

Acc72

Don't you just hate ageism and sexism in the workplace ? (unless it works in your favour of course - invariably not for males).

The issue should be - is the person physically able to do what is being asked of them (irrespective of sex or age).

ceridwen

If that was a reference to my post, then:

- "age" in this case just means the older employees have "been around the block" a few times and are wiser to the "ways of employers". Also - the older employees will have likely started work in "gentler times" and therefore have experience of when the workplace wasnt as harsh as it is these days and will see attempts to make it even harsher for what they are and not reasonable.

- "sexism"??? Believe me lad....its not ME thats sexist on that one. Try arguing with Mother Nature:rotfl: - as its down to her/him/it that women have lower physical strength than men

System

ceridwen wrote: »

b. Print out 2 copies of this guide - one for you to keep and the other for the Union to hand to your employer, with a covering note drawing their attention in particular to page 10.

Not forgetting to point out that on page 11 it states that they are only guidelines and can be exceeded after a suitable assessment. Page 10 also states that twice the guideline weight is still OK subject to assessment

ohreally

These figures have been lifted from the HSE who also go on to state...

"The risk assessment guidelines are not safe limits for lifting. But work outside the guidelines is likely to increase the risk of injury, so you should examine it closely for possible improvements. You should remember that you must make the work less demanding if it is reasonably practicable to do so. Your main duty is to avoid lifting operations that involve a risk of injury. Where it is not practicable to do this you should assess each lifting operation and reduce the risk ofi njury to the lowest level reasonably practicable. As the risk of injury goes up you must look at the operation increasingly closely to make sure it has been properly assessed and the risk of injury has been reduced".

Ref: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg143.pdf