ACCORDING to WorkCover Queensland and Workplace Health and Safety, “sprains and strains account for more than 60 per cent of non-fatal workers’ compensation claims.

“The two most common causes are hazardous manual tasks and slips, trips and falls at levels.”

This clearly represents a significant portion of workplace injuries and an area that Workplace Health and Safety has identified as needing improvement across all industries.

In response to this, Workplace Health and Safety has initiated a whole of industry intervention, which has been referred to as the Sprains and Strains Assessment.

Any workplace in the state who has recently had a workers’ compensation claim for a sprain or strain injury may be captured by the assessment.

For those workplaces selected, an inspector will visit the workplace and be tasked with the following:

• assess work tasks that expose workers to risk factors; and
• determine if adequate action has been taken to control the risk factor.

Of course, these are things that employers already have an obligation to do in order to comply with the various duties placed upon them, such as the primary duty they have to their workers set out in section 19 the Work Health and Safety Act 2011.

If you are not confident that your workplace would pass the Sprains and Strains Assessment (regardless of whether you’ve had a recent claim) then now is as good a time as any to review this area and get on top of your legal obligations!

Until next week – Keep it Legal!

* The legal information in this article is of a general nature only and not intended to be legal advice to rely upon.