16 year old son just put his back out due to lifting at work

izoomzoom

Hiya

I have the delightful pleasure of working in a supermarket type environment and our deliveries come in cages.

Quite often the boxes are so wedged within the cages it is a real struggle to get them out, and it is fine if the cage has doors on both sides wherein one can push and the other pull, but we also have cages with just one door, and getting stuff out can be a major problem.

All staff get training with regards to lifting etc, and one of the key points is if you can't do it, get a collegue to help. Great if the cage has two doors, but how do two people fit at the front of a cage ????

Notwitstanding, my major point, to mention, which I haven't noticed mentioned (unless it was in the links) was the OP's son must fill in an incident / accident report. Even if he was not aware of the injury at the time, he must fill one in as soon as he can. No claims will be considered without a record being made.

Also RIDDOR requires that all work related injuries that result in 3 days away from work must be reported to them.

Vashti

Thanks all, lots of great - and very different - advice!

He was not great this morning. His back has completely siezed...he can hardly move, but I think as he has never ever had any kind of back pain before he is actually afraid to move and has sort of tensed up, making it worse. He said when it happened as he tried to get out of the chair at school he got the fright of his life.

I phoned his work this morning and spoke to somone in the office. I got a really nice woman. I asked what would happen if he could no longer do the job he was employed to do. She replied that she had spoken to his line manager, and knew all about it. She also said my son is a willing, reliable and valued employee who they didn't want to lose, so as the store was pretty big she would find him another position that did not involve warehouse lifting work. She also told me not to worry too much as it was a regular occurance - people requesting in store transfer because they found the lifting too difficult. Some people have no problem with it, and most youngsters - especially strapping lads like my son - start there, and move on as and when they want to and if there is another position.

We discussed the moving and handling issues, and she said he was given basic training on his first two days (my son says he literally got five minutes with a 'buddy', who showed him round the warehouse and told him his duties. From then on he just did what everyone else did, but at no time did anyone show him or explain to him the importance of how to lift correctly. He didn't even know there WAS a way to lift correctly or incorrectly until his back went pop.)

As he is sixteen he doesn't need any kind of licence to work in Scotland.

Anyway, if he has done any sort of real damage I guess I will have to take things further...but if the pills/heat etc work and he goes back next week to another position in store we will all be quite happy.