Postman injured by heavy postbag wins damages

A postman has won damages from the Royal Mail after he was injured dragging an overweight postbag out of his van in May 1997. The Judge rules that Royal Mail could have done more to prevent the accident.

The Judge found that there was "little or no evidence... of training and guidance". Despite Royal Mail guidelines that workers should divide loads so that bags do not weigh more than 16kg, Mr Melvin claimed that he was not informed of this in his training a few weeks before the accident. The Judge also found that there was a lack of risk assessment and supervision on behalf of the Royal Mail.

Mr Melvin has been left badly injured and has been told he will never work again. The level of damages will be decided later in the year.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 require employers to ensure the health and safety of employees in the manual handling of loads where there is a risk (particularly of back injury) to workers.
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