If you are looking at this blog you may be considering making an accident at work claim. At The Injury Lawyers, we know making a claim against your employer can be a challenging task to perform; however, our advice is that you can instruct lawyers to fight your corner and act on your behalf. Employers should also have insurance in place to deal with these types of situations – the insurers will investigate and come to a conclusion whether your employer was at fault – and if so, how much you should be fairly recompensed for that failure.
There are a number of areas of safety which your employer should consider:
Personal Protective Equipment
Personal Protective Equipment or PPE is equipment which can be worn or used to protect you from risks to your health and safety. PPE can come in all shapes and sizes from safety boots, to respirators, to safety goggles. All PPE should be provided by your employer free of charge, with not even a contribution paid by you. Employers should not only supply the PPE to you free of charge, but also ensure you are fully trained in how to use it, and that it is maintained and stored in the correct manner.
Manual tasks
If an employer asks you to complete manual tasks, then you should be fully trained in how to complete the task safely. To illustrate this, I use the example of heavy lifting tasks – before completing any such task, you should be trained in how to lift, causing as little stress to your body as possible. There are also limits on how much you can lift, so you should also be made aware of this.
General workplace safety
Employers should ensure that the workplace is set up and maintained in a safe manner. A good example of this is a warehouse as a workplace. In a warehouse environment, you may expect refuse such as boxes and/or strapping from around boxes to be around – therefore in order to keep the area safe, your employer should have allocated places to store such refuse, and also check to ensure walkways are free of hazards.
If you feel your employer is putting you at risk by not fulfilling their duties adequately, then you should bring this to their attention. If you have already suffered from an accident at work which was not your fault, it is advisable to gain advice directly from a specialist personal injury lawyer.
