There are a lot of rules and regulations in place that employees must abide by to ensure that their employees are not injured during the course of their employment. These regulations range from general health and safety at work, use of equipment at work, personal protective equipment at work, manual handling at work, and much more.
Whilst we have a good array of rules and regulations in place to protect employees, there are still high volumes of compensation claims that we deal with here that we often cannot understand how the employer has allowed it to happen. Simple things are missed, and employers fall foul of not taking health and safety in the workplace seriously enough to ensure people are not hurt at work.
Take for example a supermarket, that employs people to use delivery cages to distribute stock on to the shelves from the delivery lorries. The cages are work equipment, and must be regularly inspected and maintained by the employer to ensure they are safe to use. Staff should know to report any issues or difficulties in using them t prevent anyone from coming to harm. It’s simple enough to do, right? Why then does John Smith end up injured because the shelf on the cage he was using was being propped up by a surplus box of crisps and collapses as he innocently tried to remove the box to place it on a shelf? How has the employer allowed the cage to be in such disrepair that staff are using boxes to prop up shelves; and why weren’t staff more vigilant to report those kinds of problems? Normally because the employer isn’t doing enough to ensure it doesn’t happen.
Or what about when John Smith slips in the canteen due to the floor being mopped by the cleaning team who failed to dry the floor properly, or at all, and / or failed to put out any wet floor signs, cordons, or other warnings in place? Well it could go one of two ways commonly; either the employer is responsible because they have failed to implement and / or train the cleaning staff on appropriate warnings for wet floors, or the staff are responsible which ultimately leaves the employer vicariously liable.
The point here is that employers have an important duty to ensure that their employees are not injured in the workplace. Rules and regulations need to be in place to uphold the important health and safety regulations that are required to make sure people are not injured in the workplace. If you are injured and the fault lies with your employer, you may be eligible to make a claim for compensation from the insurance policy that they must legally hold.
For workplace claims, it’s never normally some personal vendetta to bring your employer to justice; they have insurance which they have a legal obligation to have which covers you for any injuries or suffering at work that was caused through no fault of your own. Really it’s just a case of getting a lawyer who can make sure you’ll get the maximum amount of compensation possible in the quickest possible time. We normally just deal with the insurance company directly and it rarely involves us getting in touch with your employer once the claim is ongoing.
There are also a couple of other important facts that you need to know about claiming for a workplace accident as well:
- The insurance covers legal fees as well; so with the right lawyer on board you should receive no less than 100% of your compensation payout.
- You are legally protected for claiming; i.e. you cannot be sacked or treated any differently for making a claim.
We normally find that most employers are quite happy for you to make a claim from their insurance. At the end of the day it’s there to compensate you for injuries caused through no fault of your own.
To find out if you have a claim, call our expert work accident compensation team on 0800 634 75 75 for all the information you need to know whether you are owed thousands of pounds in compensation for your suffering.
