Legal aspects of musculoskeletal problems in the workplace.

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M problems are probably one of the greatest causes of sickness absence and time off work. For example, bad backs, stiff necks and frozen shoulders are extremely common causes of sickness absence. Employers and doctors find these conditions difficult—the medical profession because there are often difficulties in diagnosis and in effective treatments, the employer because pain experienced by an individual is often subjective and such painful conditions often continue over a significant period of time, thus necessitating long periods of time off work. Work-related upper limb disorders (WRULDs) are now one of the five most compensated occupational diseases in the UK. In December last year, Digital Equipment, the US computer manufacturer, was ordered by a US District Court in Brooklyn to pay three women keyboard operators $6 million (nearly £3.6 million) for their arm and wrist injuries while using Digital keyboards The injuries concerned carpal tunnel syndrome. In the USA, personal injury claims are heard by juries, unlike in the UK. In this case, the jury found that there were no design defects in the keyboard, but ruled that users ought to have been warned of the dangers of excessive keyboard work. In the UK, the Courts have found employers equally liable in law (although not liable to pay out such an extravagant amount of damages) to a range of workers from chicken pluckers to typists working for the Inland Revenue. Kathleen Harris, an £11 000 a year typist, was paid a record £79 000 as an out-of-court settlement by her former employers, the Inland Revenue, following her chronic ‘tennis elbow’ which she alleged had been caused by her inappropriate work station and her non-stop typing. It is clear that simple occupational health and safety practices such as regular risk assessments, adequate and properly designed furniture and ergonomic factors, adequate information and instruction on safe working practices, and a reliable and efficient self-referral protocol for those with the first minor or transient symptoms will be essential in establishing safe working practices and successfully defending claims for negligence [1].