Move Well – Work Well Week
Move Well – Work Well Week is an annual event in Newfoundland and Labrador, organized by WorkplaceNL, to help raise awareness of musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) and find practical solutions for prevention in workplaces.
MSIs are painful disorders of the muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, spinal discs, and related soft tissues. MSIs include sprains, strains and inflammation conditions, which are commonly caused by routinely working in awkward or sustained postures, performing repetitive motions, or overexerting tissues from manual lifting and handling activities.
In order to effectively address MSI’s in the construction industry, we need a good understanding of the factors that place a worker at risk for an MSI and how to control these hazards. In the construction, MSI’s often occur from:
Overexertion when lifting
Bending, climbing, crawling, reaching and twisting
Falling to floors, walkways or other surfaces
Slipping, tripping or loss of balance
The Impact of MSIs
Provincially, MSI’s account for 69% of all claims involving lost time from work and approximately $109M in annual claim costs.
In the construction industry, from 2018-2022, MSI’s accounted for:
How Can I Get Involved?
Complete a risk assessment to help identify MSI hazards at your workplace.
Participate in MSI Certification Training.
We also encourage all employers to conduct a toolbox talk with workers. These discussions can help identify hazards that place workers at risk for an MSI as well as gaps in knowledge or training. Encourage workers to ask questions, raise concerns and be actively involved in MSI prevention at the workplace.
FREE MSI Training
On September 19th and 21st, 2023, the NLCSA will be offering MSI Prevention Certification training, FREE to our Members and Associate Members, at our Mt. Pearl location.This 1-day course covers an introduction to MSI’s, MSI Basics and MSI Hazard Recognition, Evaluation & Control.
MSI Resources
The NLCSA has compiled some helpful tools to assist with MSI Hazard Identification & Prevention, including toolbox talks and sector specific MSI hazard & control information sheets. Use there resources to help raise awareness at your workplace.
WorkplaceNL Resources
Visit WorkplaceNL’s Move Well – Work Well Week webpage to access MSI Resoures, register for MSI webinars, request a site visit and more!
