Unions back HSE injury campaign

Unions are taking the lead in supporting a new Health and Safety Executive (HSE) campaign to reduce back injury at work.

Focusing primarily on manual handling, the Better backs campaign aims to educate workers and employers about how to aid recovery from back pain - and how to prevent it in the first place.

"We welcome the HSE campaign's simple messages that cost-effective use of handling aids or changes to the way people work can make a difference," said Doug Russell, health and safety officer within shopworkers' union USDAW, at a TUC back care seminar in June. "And for those who are injured, early reporting of symptoms, proper treatment and planned rehabilitation can ensure that they get back to work in safety."

Russell added that union safety reps have a vital part to play in improving back health - both by using techniques like body mapping to find out where the risks are, and by using their negotiating skills to secure improvements.

New HSE figures show that, in 2003-04, an estimated 468,000 workers in Britain suffered from back pain caused or made worse by work. Workers with back pain took an average of 19 days off during that year.

"Back injuries are extremely debilitating to individual victims and their families," commented Northern TUC regional secretary Kevin Rowan at the seminar. "And yet the solutions that would prevent injury are often extremely simple."

More information on the Better backs campaign is available at www.hse.gov.uk/betterbacks