But the company has teamed up with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to help find ways to reduce the risk - and support people who may have suffered from back pain, get back to work.
The Gateshead factory was used as the base for the launch of an HSE "Better Backs" campaign to raise awareness of the need to reduce the risk of suffering from back pain, and to encourage people to stay active if they are one of the four in five people who will, unfortunately go on to suffer discomfort during their lives.
The Better Backs campaign will run throughout October, and HSE will be working with a range of employers as well as local authorities, health care providers, young workers, and house builders to encourage them and and their employees to adopt correct lifting and handling techniques as well as staying active.
Speaking at the launch of the campaign, Peter Dodman, Principal Inspector for HSE in the North East said:
"An estimated 4.9 million working days were lost last year due to back-related ill health in Great Britain which has a significant impact on both the individuals concerned and their employers' business.
"Finding workplace solutions to back pain will reduce absenteeism, increase productivity and save you money. Often some simple changes can let your workers return to their original jobs before they could otherwise do so. Working with your employees will help you identify simple, inexpensive solutions to this problem."
Pat Love, Site Manager at Allied Bakeries Kingsmill Plant in Gateshead said:
"Health and safety is extremely important to us at Allied Bakeries and we have a very active staff committee that helps set priorities and provide solutions designed out risks by installing power assisted machines to lift the 25 kg bags of flour and providing training in manual handling techniques.
"We actively encourage our staff to get involve and make suggestions and that works really well. If, in the unfortunate situation, a member of staff develops a problem, we provide occupational health support and work with them actively to help them stay active and get back to work as soon as they can."
One member of staff who did need to call on support is Caroline Leach. Caroline has worked for Allied Bakeries for a number of years, starting off initially as a cleaner, but now working in administration and is responsible for looking after the hygiene team and technical department. Throughout her time with the company, Caroline has also been a health and safety rep, taking an active role in making and implementing suggestions to help improve practises.
Earlier this year, after suffering niggling back pain for some considerable time without knowing the cause of the pain, her condition deteriorated and she ended up having to take five weeks off work.
But rather than adopting the old wives' tale method of dealing with a bad back by lying flat on a hard surface until she felt better, Carloine was referred, by work, to see a physiotherapist who gave her some simple exercises to do. She said:
"Those exercises have really made all the difference. The company has really helped and supported me to get better and keeping active and doing the exercises, which I still do, definitely helped me get better and get back to work quicker."
Peter Dodman, HSE Principal Inspector added:
"Staying active is now accepted as being the best way to manage back pain in all but a few cases, and as Caroline has said, continuing to do the simple exercises she was recommended helped her recover and will hopefully help keep her well in the future."
To find out more about how to tackle back pain go to betterbacks.hse.gov.uk or you can call the HSE Infoline on 0845 345 0055.
