Jungheinrich has warned that a growing reliance on temporary workers, and confusion over training, will increase the number of fork lift truck accidents.
Peter Scott, Jungheinrich UK’s group HSE manager said: “Our figures indicate that agency workers are involved in more forklift accidents than permanent staff.”
Jungheinrich reckons that employers are reluctant to hire permanent staff in the current economy. They are likely to use temporary agency workers to ease pressure on the supply chain, but training of temporary staff is still a grey area.
Scott said: “It is an agency’s responsibility to provide staff that are trained to operate the materials handling equipment which they will be using, but it is down to the company employing them to ensure that the workers are familiar with the environment and layout of the warehouse.”