Under various health and safety rules, your employer must provide a safe working environment for you and all other employees. This includes providing suitable work equipment to assist you to do your job efficiently and safely.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER) covers such equipment at work. Equipment can range from heavy machinery to a desk chair. Using equipment can pose a risk of injury when it isn’t used properly or where it isn’t suitable or is defective. It’s the duty of your employer to prevent this from happening and ensure work equipment is provided to eliminate risks.
Your employer’s duty
If you suffer harm because equipment at work was defective, unsuitable or should not have been used or training wasn’t provided, you could be eligible for compensation.
The law means employers have a legal duty to:
- Provide necessary equipment to assist employees in their work;
- Teach or train employees how to use it safely;
- Make sure the equipment is not defective and is safe to use;
- Check equipment regularly (actively checking rather than just ‘keep an eye out’) to continually ensure its safe;
- Provide additional protective devices like ’emergency stop’ buttons and clear visible warnings where dangers cannot be fully avoided;
- Store equipment safely to reduce chances of it becoming defective.
With the proper information, instruction and training, employees should be able to safely use work equipment with a minimal risk of injury.
Injured because of work equipment? How to claim!
Contact The Injury Lawyers and we can help you bring a claim against your employer’s insurer (the usual way of doing things). Don’t worry about it being personal; it’s what insurance policies are there for in the first place!
We can submit the claim for you meaning the insurer should then accept or deny liability. If they accept liability, this usually means that they accept it was their fault and we can negotiate a settlement that is fair and agreeable. If they deny liability, we can fight for your case.
We often need medical evidence to help decide the appropriate award for compensation for the pain, and then we can also look to claim back losses like lost earnings suffered as a result of your employer’s negligence.
If you’ve been injured directly because of work equipment at work through no fault of your own, get in touch with us to see if you can claim for work injury compensation. If we take the case on, we will normally be able to offer our help on a No Win, No Fee basis.
