Mr J approached our specialist team here at The Injury Lawyers having suffered from chemical burns due to exposure to concrete as part of his job role. The provision of personal protective equipment in the workplace is of paramount importance in preventing injuries like this in the workplace, but unfortunately for Mr J, his employer failed him on this occasion.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations state that an employer must provide adequate protective equipment (or PPE as it’s known for short) where an employee is at risk of injury. If the hazard itself cannot be avoided by other means, there is a duty on the employer to provide such equipment to protect their employees.
Mr J was using a block of timber that was covered in concrete whilst he was working in his role concreting a site. The risks of chemical burns from the concrete were obvious – but his employer failed to provide any protective equipment which resulted in the injury.
Initially the injury looked a lot more severe than it actually was. In the early stages the burns looked terrible and covered a large proportion of the knee and upper leg area – but thankfully they healed well and the scarring was minimal. As such, Mr J was happy to accept the offer from his employer’s insurers of £2,550 in settlement of his claim.
This case was pursued under the ‘old’ way which meant that we had to submit a formal letter of claim to the employer and the insurers had just under four months to investigate the case. As is common in many cases, the insurers were not very quick to respond, and we had to take them to court for failing to provide their decision on liability in time.
When they eventually did respond, they accepted liability without a fight. In a case like this, were there has been a clear breach of such important health and safety legislation, we’d have been surprised if they had tried to fight us!
There are loads of workplace health and safety regulations that employers must abide by. If they fail to adhere to these important regulations, and this causes an accident or an injury, they can be liable to compensate any employees who fall victim to their negligence.
For the vast majority of employer’s liability claims, we deal directly with the insurers, and the process can be very streamlined and efficient. You don’t need to worry about the consequences of putting in a workplace claim because you are protected by law and your employer should be insured for these eventualities.
It’s nothing personal – you’re just recovering the compensation you are owed through the insurance that covers you!
