Employers are under a duty to provide adequate training and know how to its employees to ensure that they can carry out their work in a safe manner to ensure that they are not injured or there is no injury to their co-workers.

Where lifting and carrying materials in work is required, an employer is under a duty to provide manual handling courses to ensure that this general task can be carried out properly and safely by the employees. For more specific tasks such as the use of chemicals, specific training may well be required by the employees to ensure that the task can be carried out in a safe manner. Also, where the use of electricity is involved, it is important that all employees are properly trained to carry out their duties safely.

Common injuries due to inadequate training in the workplace

The list of potential injuries arising out of in adequate training is in reality a very lengthy list however, some of the more common injuries due to inadequate training in the workplace include:

• Falls from height or ladders due to lack of training in the use of ladders, scaffolding and other similar equipment;
• Electric shocks – due to inadequate training;
• Chemical burns from the use of hazard materials;
• Injuries resulting from a lack of knowledge and training in the proper use of workplace equipment;
• Injuries from exposure to hazard materials over a long period of time such as asbestos.