If you have been the victim of a trapping injury in a machine or equipment at work, here is what you need to know about your legal rights under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) 1992. This brought in provisions to ensure the safety of the equipment or machinery which you use at work and ensures that your employer is maintaining it effectively.
How does PUWER protect me at work?
It is not only industrial machinery which can cause accidents as it can be any equipment which is used at work. PUWER is wide in scope and does not only apply to businesses which use certain types of machinery or equipment. It applies to companies, government departments, local councils, charities and even law firms!
The machinery and equipment which covered by the law includes any machinery, appliance, apparatus or combination of components which work together to form a common end result.
What employers should do
Below is a list which is not limited to what employers should do, but provides useful examples of checks or inspections which should be maintained before or during the use of the equipment. Employers should ensure that any machinery or equipment which is used should be:
- Suitable for its intended purpose
- Take account of the working environment and health and safety risks in the workplace when choosing equipment
- Ensure equipment is kept in a good working state
- Inspected regularly where it is liable to deteriorate in its position
- Ensure everyone who supervises, uses or manages the equipment is trained
- Where the equipment is likely to involve a specific risk, then take steps to avoid that risk by restricting it to those who are trained and appointed to use it (source)
Trapping Examples
If you are working near machinery with moving parts then your employer should make sure that the working environment where the machinery is placed is unlikely to harm any of the employees. Employers could reduce this risk by keeping the machinery in a cage so no-one could enter the area. A common example is where people work with conveyor belts and get their hands trapped.
If you work outside and work with machinery then employers should ensure that the machinery is kept in a good working state and inspected regularly so that it cannot deteriorate. This could include moving equipment on a building site or small cranes where employees could get trapped between the materials being moved and where they are being moved to.
Strict Liability
Strict Liability in this instance means that you could be injured and it is automatically the employer’s fault, without it actually being their fault. This is important as it puts responsibility on the employer to ensure that the work equipment is maintained correctly.
