A slipped disc can be a very painful injury to sustain. It can lead to a lot of time off work, and a lot of pain and inconvenience as well as potentially future and long term complications. For those of you reading this who have sustained this kind of injury, I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir.
So if you slip a disc in the line of duty at work, can you make a claim for work injury compensation from your employer?
It all depends on the circumstances. Commonly this kind of injury is caused through manual handling. Common examples are:
- Incorrect lifting techniques.
- Lifting something which is too heavy.
- Lifting an object in an unsafe environment – e.g. in a tight space where you are lifting whilst crouched in a cellar for example.
- Lifting an awkwardly shaped / sized object.
Lifting aside, this kind of injury can be caused from general manual work:
- Pushing or pulling something that’s too heavy or awkward.
- Trying to loosen a bolt or loosen something from machinery incorrectly.
The regulations that typically apply in these kinds of scenarios are The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 and The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992.
When it comes to manual handling, all activities need to be risk assessed and all staff involved need to be appropriately trained in correct lifting techniques. There should be mechanical assistance if necessary, and / or enough employees involved in the lift. If these regulations are breached and you are injured, you may have a winning claim against your employer.
When it comes to work equipment, this could be in relation to suitable work equipment. If you are given a wrench to try and loosen an excessively tight bolt when you should have an automatic power tool that will do the job for you, there may be a claim if your attempts to loosen the bolt result in injury. A common example would be that of car wheels – nowadays most garages use automatic tools to tighten bolts on so using a wrench to get your wheel off is normally mission impossible!
100% Compensation Offer
We understand that a slipped disc injury is serious, and you need to be properly compensated for what has happened to you. That’s why we offer a genuine 100% compensation agreement that allows you to keep all of your payout.
The actually changed in April 2013 and most lawyers will now want to take up to 25% from your payout. We will not!
