So what happens if you are at work and you lose a finger or several fingers due to a piece of equipment? Is your employer liable to compensate you for the loss and any lost earnings or other expenses associated with the injury?
The Law – and Your Rights
First and foremost, there is an important piece of legislation that covers maintenance of equipment, and this is covered in The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. This reads as follows:
5.(1) Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
There are specific regulations that would cover you when it comes to a limb or appendage being injured due to dangerous parts or a lack of suitable guards and rails to prevent access to dangerous parts. Here are a few examples:
Preventing Access
11.(1) Every employer shall ensure that measures are taken in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective–
(a) to prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or
(b) to stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone.
Without going in to more detail about even more specific regulations, the duties that are imposed mean that you shouldn’t be able to inadvertently access dangerous parts of machinery. Guards and rails should be in place and be suitable and effective.
Stop Controls
Where you may be able to access exposed dangers in any event, like on a saw or a press, there should be sufficient measures to stop the equipment to either prevent or minimise the severity of an injury. There are specific regulations that cover the provision and use of stop controls as well. They read as follows:
15.(1) Every employer shall ensure that, where appropriate, work equipment is provided with one or more readily accessible controls the operation of which will bring the work equipment to a safe condition in a safe manner.
So as you can see, the duty is there. The next part specifically addresses emergency stop controls and reads as follows:
16.(1) Every employer shall ensure that, where appropriate, work equipment is provided with one or more readily accessible emergency stop controls unless it is not necessary by reason of the nature of the hazards and the time taken for the work equipment to come to a complete stop as a result of the action of any control provided by virtue of regulation 15(1).
Isolation
If you need to access dangerous parts of machinery for maintenance or cleaning as an example, suitable measures should be in place to ensure that there is absolutely no way the machinery could activate and injure you. You could be in serious danger if you were cleaning a press and it suddenly started operation.
There are specific regulations for this as well which read as follows:
19.(1) Every employer shall ensure that where appropriate work equipment is provided with suitable means to isolate it from all its sources of energy.
Legislation: www.legislation.gov.uk
Making a Claim
As you can see, the law is on your side! There are specific regulations in place to ensure that you are covered in the event of an injury in the workplace.
We offer 100% compensation for work accident claims so contact us now on 0800 634 75 75 for specialist help and advice today!