The importance of Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE for short) at work is huge. There are certain risks and hazards in many workplace situations that mean the only form of protection from injury is with equipment employers must provide to their employees. The duty is on the employer to pay for and provide suitable equipment, as well as to maintain the equipment and replace such equipment as and when it is necessary to do so.
For example – if you need to manually handle dangerous material, such as sharp metals, hot liquids, chemicals, or anything that can cause any form of injury or suffering to you, your employers must provide you with the right equipment such as gloves to protect you from injury. Gloves in these kinds of scenarios must be appropriate as well – they must be strong enough to ensure sharp material cannot slice through the gloves, or heat retardant enough to prevent hot materials or liquids from burning through them.
The equipment must also be available and suitable for use as well. Taking the gloves example again – they’re no use if there aren’t any available to fit you, or if the gloves prevent you from working, or if there are only limited amounts leaving some employees without protection.
Here’s another classic example – helmets or hard hats in a building site. You’ve probably seen the signs outside the entrances of building sites preventing access to anyone who isn’t wearing helmets, or goggles, or a high visibility jacket. It’s all for a very good reason – the potential dangers involved in a building site from falling material or knocks to the head can leave someone with some serious damage.
So – what can you do if you are injured at work as a result of personal protective equipment at work? Perhaps one of the following scenarios is relevant for you:
- The PPE provided did not protect you enough or at all from injury
- The PPE was poorly maintained and failed to protect you
- The PPE you were provided was the wrong type of PPE, failing to offer the proper protection it should have done
- You were not provided with any PPE at all
- There was no suitable PPE at the time of working
- You were not trained properly in how to use the PPE to offer the full protection it should do
If any of the above situations apply to you, or if you aren’t sure whether you may have a claim for compensation or not, call our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 for the legal advice you need or to start your claim straight away.
The great thing about UK law and employment law is that your employer has a legal obligation to have Employers Liability Insurance that you can claim from for injuries and loss. Better yet, it covers legal fees as well – so you will receive 100% of your compensation payout with the right lawyer representing you on a Genuine No Win, No Fee basis.
You are also protected by law for claiming – i.e. your employment cannot be affected at all because you are making a claim. In fact, we find nowadays most employers are quite happy for you to make a claim as they have insurance in place for the whole purpose of claiming from! So you have nothing to worry about at all.
