Assault course of action

A SPECIAL database has been set up by Fenland District Council to record incidents of "abusive/actual threatening/actual physical assault" against council staff.

Those involved are being sent warning letters in the hope "that this will help to prevent future occurrences," says a report to next Monday's staff committee.

The report, by David Vincent, health and safety advisor, says that during the past year there have been 15 incidents, all of which were of an abusive or threatening nature. "Ten reports were from Customer First staff, three from building control and two from housing repairs," reports Mr Vincent.

The figures are contained in the council's annual health and safety report which reveals there were 83 work-related injuries among employees last year.

The report says the majority of accidents were the result of manual handling activities, such as lifting or carrying which resulted in 28 incidents. The second-highest cause was slips and trips, with 19 incidents.

The report also notes the six more serious injuries which were reported to the Government's Health and Safety Executive.

These included:

- The workman injured when a bin fell off the lifter of a refuse vehicle and struck a member of staff, who fell into his colleague and whose hand was then caught in the bin while lifting it on to the bin lifter. Ligament damage to his thumb meant he was off work for eight days.

- A driver not wearing protective gloves who cut his finger on the sharp edge of a bind. Off work for seven days.

- A leisure centre worker off for 17 days after tripping over pipework in the plantroom.

- A member of the public whose index finger was fractured after a disabled hoist was incorrectly installed in a leisure centre pool

- A staff member who lifted a stock liner vertically out of a rubbish bin, and strained his right arm. He was off work for seven days.