Bad Back

Kevin Brown
Member - 73 posts

HSE have published a very informativeinformation pack as part of their Better Backs campaign. I've carried out DSE assessments on a large number of colleagues over the last 7 years or so and sometimes it's not the chair that's at fault. Sometimes the chair is wrongly adjusted, the posture is wrong, the desk heoght is wrong. A well trained Assessor should be able to identify the root cause of problems up to a point. Beyond that point you may have to seek specialist medical or occupational health advice. Before splashing out on a new 'special' chair (typically comes with al the whistles and bells that you don't need) ensure that the chair is properly adjusted, that the back is properly supported, lumbar support is in the right place etc, and that the posture is correct. ( A few years ago I went to investigate reports of back pain ad found the complainant tilted back in his chair, feet on the left hand edge of his deck and body/head twisted to the right so that he could reach his keyboard and see his display screen. He shoots, he scores .........)

Louis Loizou
Member - 8 posts

Once all adjustments have been made, and the back problem continues, its not for the employer to diagnose the back problem but a trained medic? should the employer be told what the cause of the back problem is before we can look at alternative chairs or have a bespoke chair made?

Kate Gardner - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 19 posts

Louis
As an organisation you have a requirement to ensure that you provide adequate information and instruction to staff on the safe use of the DSE equipment that is provided, as well as ensuring that appropriate DSE assessments are carried out. Where you have staff who have identified that they have a problem with pain then you should be carrying out a more detailed assessment, using a correctly trained specialist DSE assessor or specialist ergonomics practitioner. Where a back problem has been identified then you may also wish to involve the specialist skills of an occupational health practitioner or ergonomist who can assist in identifying whether the existing chair is contributing to the problems suffered. There are a number of Occupational Health providers whose services you can use on an Ad Hoc basis should you decide to follow this route, and we can put you in touch with several, in addition to providing your with DSE assessors training. (Please call Workplace Law Training 0871 777 8881)

Changing to an ergonomic chair may be a solution, however for it to be used correctly the user must be trained on the importance of adjusting the chair settings both to their body and the tasks being carried out. Physiotherapists often prescribe using either ball chairs (similar to a gym balls) or kneeling stools as a solution to the back pain, often with little knowledge of what the user does of the layout of their workstation. If you decide to offer an ergonomic solution I would recommend using the services of an ergonomics specialist who can use anthropometrics (body measurements) to determine appropriate dimensions for optimum fit between people and their work environment.