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Up and down the country on a daily basis people sit down to work – it is perhaps taken for granted that you sit down at your desk or at your work station in whichever job you do and start your daily jobs. However, we also take it for granted that, whilst we are sat at work, we are relatively safe from being injured, we are less likely to trip over a colleague’s bag or a trailing wire for a start. But what if the cause of our injury is the very chair that you sit on every day?

You may think it is unlikely to happen but more and more people are being injured as a result of chairs at work collapsing or breaking when they are being sat on. The question is; what can you do about it?

Well, it is your employer’s responsibility under section 2, Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to provide you with adequate equipment to allow you to do your job and to keep you safe from hazards that they are able to prevent. Therefore, if you do a job that requires sitting at a desk your employer should provide you with a chair that allows you to do this safely.

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If you are suffering from contact dermatitis through work then you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation. Dermatitis is inflammation of the skin which can be caused by coming into contact with skin irritants for example.

Work related dermatitis is more common in certain industries including healthcare, hairdressing, dentistry, food processing, cleaning, printing, engineering, agriculture etc. However dermatitis can occur in just about any place of work. Contact dermatitis is caused by things that dry out and damage the skin. Such things include solvents, oils etc. Frequent and prolonged contact with water could also cause dermatitis.

In terms of the law, dermatitis can be classed as an industrial disease which you can claim compensation for. Such disease claims are run under the terms of the Pre-Action Protocol for Disease and Illness Claims.
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Lifting is part and parcel of many jobs nowadays, but there are rules and regulations in place to ensure that employees are kept reasonably safe and injury free. The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 cover this area in some detail.

If you are lifting heavy objects at work then first and foremost, you should be trained in manual handling techniques. When possible, manual handling should be avoided. This can be done in a variety of ways such as using machinery or equipment to carry objects, re-structuring so that an object does not need to be moved etc. In many jobs an element of manual handling is still necessary and very much seen as “part of the job”. If a safer system of work can be adopted so that manual handling can be avoided, then this safer system of work should be adopted.

When manual handling cannot be avoided your employer should assess the risks of injury by considering how heavy an object is and how far it has to be carried. In many situations there will be something that can be done to either mechanically carry the object or at least assist in carrying the object.
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Accidents in the workplace can result in severe injury, as of course many workplaces are filled with large equipment and a number of people working closely together. However, what is the procedure you should follow when wanting to pursue a claim for compensation? Many people are worried about doing so, as they feel it may jeopardise their job and of course this is a worry you could do without when you are already suffering from an injury.

Accidents at work can potentially be very good cases as your employer is obliged to have insurance to cover accidents under The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969. This is in place to ensure that should an employee have an accident they will be able to pay compensation. Therefore, in the majority of cases, we send the letter of claim of to your employer who just hands it across to their insurance and it is them that continue with the claim– your employer may even encourage you to bring a claim!

So there really is no need to worry. If you have had an accident there are a few things you should try to do and are the types of things we will ask on the initial call (mainly because we like to gather all the information we need straight away to ensure your claim gets underway ASAP.)
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The New Roads & Street Works Act 1991, which came into force on the 1^st January 1993, stipulates that the street authorities (i.e. usually the local council) are to co-ordinate all works in the highway.

The objectives of the Act (or law) is to ensure safety, to minimise the inconvenience to people using the highway (including a specific reference to people with a disability) and to protect the structure of the highway and apparatus in it.

Anyone carrying out street works must carry out the work in accordance with the Act. People carrying out work are referred to as “undertakers” in the Act. Undertakers must comply with the Safety at street works and road works code of practice (more commonly known as the red book).
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Manual handling is lifting, lowering, filling, emptying or carrying loads. Manual handling covers carrying a person, an animal or an object. It can be said that most manufacturing or distribution works require a certain amount of manual handling. An element of manual handling probably cannot be avoided in some jobs. Some may not want a machine or automated system to carry things for us, as this could be another way of machinery taking over people’s jobs.

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 set out the measures which must be taken to reduce the risks associated with manual lifting and carrying while at work. A vast amount of accidents are associated with manual handling, although fatal manual handling accidents are rare. However serious injuries can and do happen in relation to manual handling.

The Regulations mean that employers must, whenever possible, avoid the need for employees to undertake manual handling operations. Obviously this is not possible in each and every job and if you are required to undertake manual handling duties then your employer should undertake risk assessments. Risk assessments involve a review of the whole process, for example could the work be done differently, what measures could be taken.
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If you have sustained injury at work within the last 3 years then you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

If you sustained an injury in terms of an industrial disease, then you may be able to claim notwithstanding the 3 year rule. If you have sustained an injury at work then you should contact a Solicitor as soon as possible to see if you have a claim. In terms of general workplace accidents there is normally a 3 year limitation period in which you must issue Court Proceedings or settle your claim within 3 years of the date of the accident; otherwise you may lose your right to claim compensation.

In some cases such as for industrial diseases (for example vibration white finger and industrial deafness) the limitation period is somewhat different as, at the time, you may not have been aware that you sustained injury. A good example is with deafness; at the time of exposure to loud noise you may not notice a hearing deficiency, but later in life you may find that your hearing is not as good as it should be. In this scenario your hearing has been damaged by noise exposure and has meant that you experience hearing difficulties in advance of when otherwise expected.
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Chances are that every day you will pick something up and move it from one place to another – for some people it might be something as simple and as stress free as a TV remote or a coffee mug, but for others a large part of their working life involves moving objects of various shapes and weights from one place to another.

If you are one of these people that have to deal with heavy or unusual objects as a part of your job then you will no doubt be aware that every time you lift a heavy item you are risking injury to some very important parts of your body.

The most common injuries involved in lifting accidents are injuries to the back but that doesn’t meant that other parts of the body cannot be affected and injuries to hands, the arms, your neck and your torso could all be related to the heavy objects that you have to lift at work. You can easily stretch or tear any number of muscles or ligaments and tendons when moving something.
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Factories can be fairly dangerous places to work – whether it is moving parts on machines, forklift trucks zipping from place to place or just things left laying around that you could fall over, the factory environment is not always a safe one.

There are many potential injuries in a factory and if you work in one your employers has a responsibility to keep you safe while you are there. Employers should provide their employees with the correct safety equipment and training that will allow them to work in as safe an environment as possible.

One of the measures that employers should use to keep you safe is “PPE” or Personal Protective Equipment. These are items provided to you by your employer to work with or use which should allow you to keep as safe as possible while in the workplace.
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Whatever your profession, the place where you work is likely to contain various hazards that may cause you to suffer an injury. Of course if you work with machinery there are the fairly obvious dangers of moving parts to watch out for and if you work in a place where vehicles are common place then you will need to watch out for traffic. However, there are many unobvious hazards in a workplace that you could fall foul of and a question that we at The Injury Lawyers are often asked is; “Can I claim against my employer?”

The answer is that while you are at work your employers have a responsibility to keep you safe from hazards that it is within their power to prevent – for instance, they should provide guards to cover the moving parts of machinery and therefore reduce the risk of you injuring yourself. So if you are injured as the result of an accident at work then yes you could be entitled to claim against your employer.

However, that is not the end of the story and for most people contemplating a claim against their employer they will be worried about losing their job or suffering at work as a result. In actual fact, employers have responsibilities in this respect as well. All employers are required to hold insurance policies that cover their employees under the Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969.
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