Employers Responsibilities

Your Employer’s Responsibility

Employers are legally required to address the risks associated with a repetitive strain injury (RSI) under the Health and Safety at Work Act. Failure to implement the required measures to protect employees could result in the following:

• The pain and suffering of employees and their families through ill-health
• Employees losing the ability to work
• Loss of business earnings
• Decline in efficiency
• Sickness absence
• Issues relating to quality control and productivity
• Costs related to staff replacement and training
• The risk of litigation
• Bad publicity for the employer
• A rise in insurance premiums and the costs of compensation to the injured worker

It is the responsibility of the employer to pick up on any warning signals which may be the ‘tip of the iceberg’. If one person develops symptoms of a repetitive strain injury (RSI) there may be others working in a similar position that are also being exposed to risk factors and might be in the process of developing a disorder.

It is not enough for a business to recognise the risks present in their organisation – an employer must take action to eliminate these risks or minimise them as much as possible. Employers should take the following steps to do this:

Understand the issues and commit to taking action to tackle them

Managers and staff should have an understanding of repetitive strain injuries and the associated symptoms. This will help to promote a positive culture in the workplace and ensure that the whole team know what to look out for so symptoms can be diagnosed sooner rather than later.

Assess the risks of RSI in the workplace

This should be carried out in the form of a risk assessment and the management team must then work to reduce the risks present within the workplace.

Manage any instances of repetitive strain injury

Managers should implement a system to manage any instances of RSI and staff should be encouraged to report any possible case before they become persistent. Regular checks of the effectiveness of this system should be carried out over time.