Health and Safety in Shearing (PDF 917kb) - WorkSafe Victoria

6.6 Wool and press rooms – hazards and risksHazard or riskContinual bending and reaching to pick up fleecesoff boards increases the risk of back strain.Insufficient space in the wool room may causecollision with other workers and contact with shedmachinery, and difficulty in safely and properlythrowing, skirting, rolling, classing and storingthe wool.An increased workload on the shed hand increasesrisks of sprain and strain injuries.Risk controlRaised shearing boards reduce back strain whenpicking up.The minimum clear space around the shearing boardend and working sides of the wool table shouldbe 1 m, with a minimum of 2 m between anymachine and the wool table.A minimum of one metre around the wool pressmust be kept clear to allow safe operation.Ensure there are no obstacles between the boardand wool table.It is recommended that a ratio of one shed hand(excluding the presser) for each 200–250 fleecesshorn per day be employed rather than a shed handto shearer ratio. The workload in the wool room isa result of the number of fleeces being shorn notthe number of shearers removing the fleeces.“A woolclasser shall not perform wool rolling inaddition to wool classing in a shed where more than900 fleeces per day are shorn.”(Woolclassers Award 1999, Clause 4.2.2 (b))This good sized wool table has good clearance around it.The posture and movement here place strain on the back, shoulders and arms.18 Health & Safety in Shearing