Health and Safety in the workforce for female bodied women

[placemats]

I've got a new job that I enjoy. However, I've been asked to do certain tasks that, quite frankly, are based for male bodied men. That is they require upper body strength.

Now the Health and Safety Act is quite a maze in legal terms to get through, but I would be grateful for a precise summary.

Can anyone help? I'm having in mind Caroline Criado Perez's book Invisible Women.

What job do you do? Have you had any manual handling training?
There are various regulations that place responsibilities on the employer to ensure the safety of employees.
Also you should join a union if you haven't already.

A young woman might have more upper body strength than an older man...

They should be assessing the ability/ safety etc of people.

Yes it may well be that the thing is better suited to more men than women

But I'd think a blanket ban on women doing the whatever and all men can do it is not the right approach in this instance.

Are you worried about injury. Does equipment not fit / hard to use. Take it up with them on those grounds I'd say

I’m assuming you’re referring to manual handling. HSE has produced a brief guide to the manual handling regulations. If you Google “Manual Handling Operations Regulations. A Brief Guide” you should find it on the HSE website (Doc No INDG143(Rev 3). The employer is legally required to undertake a risk assessment of the manual handling operations, including the ways of reducing the risk of injury. This risk assessment must take account of the physical capabilities of the workers (irrespective of whether they are male or female).

What types of things? Lots of women work in physical jobs, often with manual lifting. The company should reduce the risks to all, by providing lifting aid and equipment. I know many women who are stronger than their office based male colleagues.

The HASAWA will not specifically state what roles and things men/women can and cannot do. I know it was written in 1974 but jeezo.

You are asking your employer to discriminate if you want a blanket ban on certain roles or jobs because of sex.

They need to assess risks based on an average person, and limit/reduce or remove what they can within reason, but at the end of the day you can't take away all risks. Legal requirement for them to have risk assessed, but not necessarily have it written down, depending on size of business.

If you are struggling with your job, it's best to talk to them about it and suggest improvements, rather than try to quote HASAWA.