Effectiveness of the SA manual handling legislation: Views from the workplace

A review was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the South Australian manual handling regulation and approved code of practice. Awareness and usage in workplaces were evaluated through a telephone survey which was conducted among 410 employers and 190 elected health and safety representatives. Levels of awareness of the regulation and code were very high for medium-large workplaces (96.5% for the regulation; 90% for the code) but only moderately so for small workplaces (57% for the regulation; 44% for the code). In medium-large workplaces, 44% had used the code of practice to the point of taking preventive action in the workplace, compared with only 4% in small workplaces. Respondents identified a number of positives regarding the code of practice, with no evidence that the code itself was a significant impediment to improving manual handling practices. It was concluded that until there is a full review of the national standard and code of practice, efforts were best directed towards the development of supporting guidance material and better delivery to small business.