The Reduction of Manual Handling Injuries in ACT Government Urban Treescapes

摘要

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Workplace Health and Safety Team reviewed the workers' compensation claims in 2008 and identified a high frequency of manual task injuries across some of their Directorates. Following the success of an ACT Health Manual Handling Program which ran from 2004 to 2009, a whole of Government initiative was implemented. The ACT Health Manual Handling Program had resulted in a consistent reduction in the number of manual handling workers' compensation claims and costs over a four year period, from 2005 to 2009 [1]. The aim of the ACT Government initiative, titled the Manual Handling Improvement Project, was to identify the ACT Government's work areas with the highest risks of manual handling injury and to develop effective risk reduction strategies. The Project was aligned with the ACT Public Service Workplace Health Strategic Plan 2008 - 2012 - Activity: Injury Prevention 2.3, that sought to "analyse and develop strategies to target agency specific issues based on each agency's risk profile and injury/claim history". The primary aim of the Project was to prevent injuries and diseases associated with manual handling incidents.