I’m going to write in parts to this article – one from the perspective of a trainee or new employee having an accident, and the other from the perspective of someone injured by a trainee or new employer at work!
You Start Work
So you start your new job and you are being trained up in how to be as efficient as possible for the company. There are lots of things you need to learn and health and safety is an issue that needs to be in the forefront of both your mind and your employers. When you are in a new environment, you may lack the skills necessary to understand certain risks. For ease of example, we’ll use a building site:
Your employer has a duty to make sure that you are trained appropriately in anything that could cause you harm. For example, you should be instructed that you need to wear a hard hat to avoid serious injury from a falling object. If your employer doesn’t instruct you in this, how are you to know? Another example could be power tools – do you know how to safely use them? What about equipment – have you been shown where the emergency stop buttons are, or have you been told that the power needs to be off when you need to access dangerous parts?
It’s all about training, instruction, and supervision – your employer cannot just expect you to know all that you need to know to stay safe at work. Training should be provided, and a record of this should be made. You should only be allowed to perform tasks you are suitably trained and are comfortable in performing the task. Supervision is required to make sure you are doing things safely.
So if your employer fails to train or instruct you properly, you may have a claim to make if you fall foul of negligence. First things first though, you have a legal right to make a claim and you shouldn’t be put off just because you have started there. Employers know their duties (or ought to know them) and they have insurance to cover them for incidents like this. You are protected by law and you cannot be dismissed just for making a claim.
On a final note, if you are qualified or experienced in a certain field, and you injure yourself in a task that you are more than familiar with but in a new job, the insurers are likely to raise this as a defence.
Injured By a Newbie?
So what if you are injured because a new starter has done something negligent, like failed to set up a job in a factory for you safely, or failing to properly assist in a manual handling activity, for example. Well in most situations when a colleague is at fault, we will commonly argue vicarious liability. This means that the negligence of a colleague falls on the employer – so you don’t sue your colleague, you sue the employers insurance in their place. Essentially you should still be covered.
You may be injured because the employee has not been trained, instructed, or properly supervised in their new role. As stated in the first section, this again can fall on your employer, particularly if they have failed to make sure that the new employee is safe at work.
There are many avenues of claiming against your employers insurance – if the accident wasn’t your fault you may well have a claim. So give us a call on our free claims helpline on 0800 634 75 75 today.
