A newsagent has injured his left arm delivering heavy Sunday Telegraph newspapers. With time off work, physiotherapy and other expenses associated with this workplace injury, the cost will be considerable.
With the Sunday Telegraph and other newspapers often weighing more than that recommended in the ANF commissioned Nery report of 2006, there is a question for News Limited to answer about the occupational health and safety challenges they present with their overweight newspapers.
Newsagents can’t split the Sunday Telegraph into two pieces. News is not paying for two deliveries anyway.
Newsagents are an agent for News, operating as a contractor under the control of News. News sets the price, terms, conditions and controls the weight of the product.
While I am no lawyer, I’d expect News to have some, if not full, responsibility for the OH&S situation where its products are concerned.
I’d be interested to hear if other newsagents or newsagency employees have sustained injuries delivering heavy newspapers.
Click here to read what I have written over the years about the Nery report and overweight newspapers.
This is a can of worms. It’s not only the weight thats an issue. The way HWT present their papers is a risk – every day.
1. They use a thin sharp material to strap the bulks. This causes numerous cuts to employees hands
2. The straps often slip off, lying on the ground (in the dark) – a risk for serious tripping. We have to be constantly on the look out for loops of strap.
3.Whenever the papers are overloaded with inserts (very often) the present as a very rounded shape and will not stack. This also causes the straps (and the looping issue) to slip off more easily.
5. Rough handling by delivery drivers cause the bulks to break up easily and again the straps come off.
It would not be difficult and indeed probably less expensive to bulk handle papers by the pallet load. I don’t understand why, with this volume and the associated safety issues, we do not have palletisation in place
Some time ago we received a letter from News which said, in no uncertain terms, that OHS issues with wrapping and delivery of their product was the sole responsibility of the agents. Of course, they control everything about the price, terms, conditions and the weight of the product, but since they have put in writing that OHS responsibilites lie with us as the delivering agent, they have effectively wiped their hands of any responsibility.
Yep, we got one of those, too. Not without a thinly veilled dig at our little shop, and our impudence for speaking up about it.
Emailed the rep, who didn’t acknowledge, then bugger me, we get this letter hand-delivered by the area manager.
Now, that’s service 😀
Me thinks they should go live in FAR n Q
Wonder if there’s any real legal basis for their letter or its just a scare to try and get newsagents to look into it no further.
Would think that if they won’t allow variation on how (ie multipart for instance) papers are delivered then some responsibility must lie with them.
I’ve often wondered whose responsibility it is if I injure myself picking up the paper bulks from where they leave them and at what point the bundle is deemed too heavy. Quite often the papers arrive in bundles that are heavier than the parcels that the mag distributors will accept back as OH&S approved weights !
While not knowing or claiming to know the level of resposibility on News for the issues raised, where laws exist regarding the the responsibilty of a party to another they cannot be circumvented by simply writing a letter. Laws and resposibilities cannot be over riden by a letter or contract for that matter unless the law in question makes provision for this.
In Short, legal resposibilites cannot be contracted out of. Fifth form legal studies from over 30years ago but I bet it still stands as I learnedit all those years ago.
Absolutely Brendan, the intimidation from publishers needs to stop. I injured my left shoulder, not my throwing shoulder, in the process of home delivering overweight sunday papers. The publisher is denying any responsibility and yet we had an employee receive compensation approved by our insurer for the same injury about 15 years ago. The fact is that unless you are operating as a company then sole traders and partnerships are sub-contractors and should be covered by the publishers insurance if the injury is related to their product or the way it is supplied.
I have raised issues repeatedly with Nationwide News, without any action taken.
We have experienced several injuries including back, shoulder (both sides) as well as several car accidents and near misses with pedestrians.
We have actively tried to prevent incidents by doing all we can to be OH&S compliant.
But there are two distinct things which Newsagents cannot control and are the cause of the majority of injuries: newspaper weights and the late arrival of newspapers to our stores.
These two factors are the sole responsibility of the publisher’s and therefore they must be responsible for any injury or accident they cause.
It appears the publishers have been actively intimidating newsagents over the issues of OH&S. Lets look at the facts – a newsagent has no control over the weight of the paper, a newsagent has no control over the time a paper arrives to them, Newsagents are required to meet delivery deadlines.
The insurers have already approved claims (for staff) against newsagents for manual handling of overweight papers, any newsagent (Sole Trader or partnership) should make claims for any injury sustained against the publishers insurance – the publisher has no right to prevent these claims – it is up to the insurer to assess.
Lets look at the facts – a newsagent has no control over the weight of the paper, a newsagent has no control over the time a paper arrives to them, and yet Newsagents are required to meet delivery deadlines.
The insurers have already approved claims (for staff) against newsagents for manual handling of overweight papers, any newsagent (Sole Trader or partnership) should make claims for any injury sustained against the publishers insurance – the publisher has no right to prevent these claims – it is up to the insurer to assess.
If you are getting paid to deliver their product then doesn’t this mean you are effectively an employee??
I would think the insurance of the publisher’s should cover any injury, provided it is documented.
Knowing the intimidation these publisher’s use against newsagents it would not suprise me at all that they deny responsibility, but legally their position may be different.
I think Fairfax and Nationwide News deliberately use intimidation and threats to scare Newsagents into taking no action as the state associations are not strong enough to act on the Newsagents behalf.
I would further add that I agree with KMC in that this is a can of worms, and perhaps the publisher’s don’t want this can of worms being opened. It would be an untimely and costly exercise addressing OH&S issues in the process of home delivering newspapers as they strive to move towards digital media.
I am sure they would like this issue swept under the carpet until digital media is the popular choice of media.
I am sure they would go to arms length to do the same to any newsagent who went out on a lim to raise these concerns in the public arena.
Mark, I have learnt plenty by stumbling across your article tonight. I have followed the other links you have posted from previous blogs and found them quite educational. I am unsure why these issues have not been pushed by state associations. It worries me that newsagents and the associations are so scared of the threats these two companies make that they actually seem to scared to comment.
This blog created a hhuge wave in NSW when Fairfax attempted to force newsagents to implement its Sunday TV Guide into the paper. I think newsagents should read your well-informed comments and ask questions of these dictatorships known as Fairfax and Nationwide News.
I’m sure for many agents, the delivery run is the life-line of their business. But OH&S issues which the newsagent cannot control should be made safe to an industry standard, not the standard set by publishers.
And yes, the publishers should supplement the distribution agents meet OH&S requirements with commissions of a more realistic 50-60%. If they can offer the customer this rate, they can offer the distributor that rate too.
Thanks Kyle. Hopefully more newsagents research this issue, especially in the context of the nature of their relationship with publishers and their obligations as employers.
Kyle #13 delivery runs are not really the “life line” of newsagents, they are loss making for most. we do them as contractual obligations not to make money. given the choice we would take a cut in newspaper gp% and have a few extra hours sleep per day.
i have always wondered about the legal implications of throwing objects from moving vehicles?
I posted this yesterday but either it’s glitched or was deleted.
Ignoring who is actually responsible for injuries from overweight papers. (I do agree that the newspaper companies shouldn’t be allowing papers to go overweight, otherwise the newsagent should be compensated or allowed to refuse delivery but still get paid)
Why would there be any economic loss from the newsagent. The owners should have adequate insurance in the event of ANY injury. You could still injure yourself with underweight newspapers, even though it’s not as likely.
Blake
Refer my yesterday post. We don’t have a high frequency of overweight bulks. We have daily issue with the strapping quality, rounded unstackable bulks and associated cuts and abrasions.
If we wear gloves we cannot grip the bulks
It’s not only about the insurance policy . It’s also about a concept. The concept of palletisation.
A lot of these problems go away if our papers are unloaded in pallets.
Harden up people, our delivery driver has been employed for 30 years, not once complained about anything nor had any injury. We will end up like America before we know it where people sue eachother just for the sake of it
@KMC,
Agree there are other issues. Though if palletisation was the answer to all these problems (especially if it was cheaper for the distributor to ship) it would have been done already.
However Mark’s post specifically mentioned “With time off work, physiotherapy and other expenses associated with this workplace injury, the cost will be considerable.”
I argue that there should be zero cost to the newsagent except the insurance expense.
Though I note today’s post on the cost of insurance doubling. This issue isn’t isolated to newsagents. I’ve had a number of clients in un-related industries pretty much tell me the same thing over the last 6 months.
@m
Let us know how you get on when you or somebody you employ gets hurt delivering your papers.
It’s out of sheer luck that many of us haven’t sustained significant injuries. If we had, we’d be stuffed.
After reading all the posts so far how can one dispute the oh&s issues associated with delivering papers in a moving vehicle. The injuries caused from overweight papers, badly packed bulks, throwing papers from a moving vehicle, extra dangers associated when its wet or there are drunken people on the road, negotiating traffic when papers are delivered late etc etc. the list can go on. Its not rocket science….its just the publishers wanting to control the areas where they profit and wash their hands at responsibility. These publishers have been bullying small guys for years, when will it stop?
@Y&G I have been delivering every second weekend for 10 yrs and not once been injured. Us country people must be tougher then city people. We have a fulltime delivery driver ( employed for 30 yrs ) and 3 casual drivers for weekends so everyone can have a weekend off. Never had and injuries whatsoever. I think there is more to wrry about in this industry then a few sooks whinging for the sake of whinging
@16 Blake, comments don;t get deleted here.
@Mark(23)
I didn’t think you would mark. Must have glitched.
Do the contracts newsagents have to deliver say anything about the volume? What about inserts?
m,
I admire you tuff count ry folk. Nothing bothers you. Just watch yourself next weekend.
How bout stick up for a fellow newsagent, are we not all in the same boat?
May I ask how many papers do you throw in the count ry?
@ m,
When your bloke retires, do you think you will be able to replace him with a youngster who will stay another 30 years?
m, thanks for clearing that up. FYI, we’ve been lucky, too. Just as well – we have no staff, so insurance means squat in this instance. Besides, we’d still trade, just not be delivering tree trunks to (not our) grateful and friendly customers.
And we don’t get weekends or days off. Great for building character and muscles.
That aside, do you really think the situation is equitable, when News actively disregards any OHS practices/guidelines we might have in place, by foisting theirs on us? If you ever got one of those letters from your circ. manager, you would note that they’re good at spouting their own guidelines, yet are smug in the knowledge that we’re pretty much unable to enforce any we may adopt.
When our delivery guy retires we will not be doing home delivery. Been losing money for years now but kept doing it out of loyalty to our committed staff member and as a service to our customers. But unless QN decides to have a massive increase in delivery fees we will be telling QN to stick it !!
And on a personal note, I agree that weekend papers are way to big and i agree with most of you on this but seriously, i think we should be asking for more from paper companies to deliver their product. You look at advertising rates in newspapers for example….they are forever rising, yet the delivery fee for newsagents has very rarely increased. I would be very interested to know how many agents are acutually making money out of their delivery runs.
I spent some 15 years in a newsagency with a large run. Some 6 years ago I wrote to the News GM and told him of my concerns for my other driver and myself in terms of OH&S. I said it needed someone with the position and will to fix. Generally i pointed out that even though we were both strong and healthy men, it was an almost impossible task to throw a 1 kg paper into a customers yard, After throwing over 200 papers on both Sat and Sun. we always had very sore arms. On one occassion I badly strained my left arm reaching around. We also flirted with traffic crossing from side to side. It was dangerous> I am glad to be out. The reps and News management and fairfax management knew the issues back then. Some one needs to hold them to account. Good Luck all.
Hi there I am assisting a driver who suffered a badly broken should when he tripped on a plastic binding loop from newspapers he was delivering. It appears the loop was on the truck floor and dragged out with a bundle of papers he was lifting. In the dark he didn’t see the loop, stepped into it and fell. The Newspaper company maintain there is nothing wrong with the binders. It appears however that it is not uncommon for the binders to come off bundles and become a tripping hazard. Has anyone out there encountered this problem?