Work Injury

Claiming for injuries sustained in the workplace

More accidents happen at work than anywhere else. In fact almost half of accidents that occur happen in the workplace. However it can be difficult for employees to bring a claim for compensation if injuries have been suffered. Many are scared of the possible "repercussions" if they take the firm that they are working for to court.

Generally these fears are groundless as all employers are obliged by law to have Employer's Liability Insurance, which should cover them if an employee is injured in the workplace and action can be taken against employers who discriminate against employees simply because they are pursuing a legitimate compensation claim for accident injuries against the firm.

Should you be the victim of an accident at work, first make sure it is reported, as this may be a useful reference point if you ultimately make a claim for compensation. Accidents, no matter how minor, should be recorded in the company’s accident book, which is mandatory for companies with 10 employees or more. Industrial injuries of a more serious nature must be reported to the Incident Contact Centre of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

If you have to miss work because of your injuries then you should make sure you get statutory sick pay which can be paid for up to 28 weeks to those unable to work due to illness or injury.

Your employment has a responsibility to safeguard your health and to make you aware of any health hazards that you may face in your work. If they have failed to do so then they risk both criminal and civil prosecution, and you have grounds for making a claim for compensation.

Your work injury compensation case will probably hinge on whether you can prove the negligence of your employer. They must provide:

• Safe premises in which to work
• Safe working procedure
• Suitable materials and equipment, with adequate supervision
• Competent staff

A safe way for you to carry out your work

Your employer must try to ensure that you carry out your work in the safest way possible bearing in mind the type of job that you do, the materials and equipment that you work with and the tasks involved. Whether or not they have done this is quite often just down to the facts of the case, but standards within the industry can often be used as a form of benchmark against which to judge whether the employer has done enough to protect his employee.

If there are inherent or known dangers then the employees need to be advised of these and properly trained in the tasks they are required to do in order to avoid them. If, for example, your job involved a lot of lifting then employees should be advised on the best way to lift the items in order to prevent injury, and regular checks should be made to ensure that these methods are being adopted.

Safe premises in which to work

Your employer needs to ensure that the place, or places, where you work and their premises in general are safe for their staff. The most obvious example of a breach of this duty would be if office floors were left wet or cluttered with files or cables, on which employees could slip or trip up on. But employers are also responsible for the heating and ventilation of their premises, the lighting and even the car park.

Suitable materials and equipment

Your employer is responsible for providing you with safe and suitable equipment with which to do your job, training you in how to use it, inspecting and maintaining it, and ensuring that it is used correctly through training and supervision.

This covers all the equipment that you may use from your chair or computer to a pneumatic drill or the dustbin man's dustcart. Whatever the equipment, your employer has responsibility for it and the way you use it.

Competent staff

Your employer must ensure, to the best of his ability, that the people that he employs around you are competent in their jobs, and do not put others at risk by their actions. So if an employee injures another through a failure to use equipment properly, or a drink or drugs problem, or simply when messing around, then the employer is potentially liable for those actions.