Many people up and down the UK work in offices and many underestimate how easy it is to be injured in an office environment.
By far the most common injuries faced by those working in offices are slips, trips and manual handling injuries; in fact according to Health and Safety Executive statistics for the year 2011/2012 up to 2,000,000 working days were lost to these injuries (source). While not all of these will have been in offices it is easy to see how they might occur in your office workspace.
Trailing wires from printers or computers, a bag or a coat that hasn’t been hung up or put away under a desk, amongst many other things in an office could all be tripping hazards. At the same time corridors between offices and communal areas that have tiled floors that collect water and liquids create a real risk of slipping hazards.
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 exist for these situations. These regulations put a responsibility on employers to keep the floors clear from obstructions and obstacles which may cause a person to slip, trip or fall. Therefore anything left trailing across the floor is an unacceptable risk.
These regulations also put a responsibility on employers to make sure that all floors and walkways in the place of work are suitable for their purpose, so if water could spill on to this surface causing a hazard then your employer should take steps to minimise this risk.
Other injuries you may sustain at work or in your office could be related to manual handling such as lifting heavy boxes of files, or carrying equipment from one place to another. If this is part of your role then your employer should provide training on how to carry out these tasks and where possible they should have systems in place to reduce the amount of lifting you do.
While the above may be the most common type of injuries in the workplace they will not be the only ones, and injuries caused to you by the equipment you use can be just as serious and equally as claim-worthy. For instance it is your employer’s responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to provide you with suitable and adequate equipment to allow you to do your job whilst keeping you safe from hazards they can prevent.
This means that the equipment you use such as your chair or desk should be sufficiently safe to allow you to work without it injuring you either from it being poorly maintained or not adequate for any specific needs you may have.
Employers in offices must take care of health and safety as much as other work places with this obligation applying equally to full and part-time employees. Some people may be reluctant to claim as they are worried about losing their job or suffering at work as a result. In fact employers have responsibilities in this respect as well and employers should have insurance policies that cover work injury claims made by their employees.
So if you have been injured in the office and would like no obligation, personal injury advice from a team of specialist personal injury solicitors then please do not hesitate to contact us on 0800 634 75 75 today.
