Archives

For a man who is responsible for looking after our new clients in a busy, leading, personal injury law firm, as well as writing informative articles for you folks to digest, you may not have thought I’d be the sort of guy who has done my fair share of work up on a scaffold rig!

A fair few years back, as a recent graduate in an economic meltdown, I did a little light renovating work for a family friend that involved scaffolding to reach the high ceilings in a former swimming hall being turned in to a modern dance studio. It was good work – I enjoyed getting my hands dirty – but as a former rock climber as well, with a little instructing experience, my knowledge of dangers at height is pretty good!

This hands on experience combined with my hands on legal knowledge allows me to write a nice little blog about scaffolding injuries and whether you can claim compensation for them.
Read More

The importance of Personal Protective Equipment (or PPE for short) at work is huge. There are certain risks and hazards in many workplace situations that mean the only form of protection from injury is with equipment employers must provide to their employees. The duty is on the employer to pay for and provide suitable equipment, as well as to maintain the equipment and replace such equipment as and when it is necessary to do so.

For example – if you need to manually handle dangerous material, such as sharp metals, hot liquids, chemicals, or anything that can cause any form of injury or suffering to you, your employers must provide you with the right equipment such as gloves to protect you from injury. Gloves in these kinds of scenarios must be appropriate as well – they must be strong enough to ensure sharp material cannot slice through the gloves, or heat retardant enough to prevent hot materials or liquids from burning through them.

The equipment must also be available and suitable for use as well. Taking the gloves example again – they’re no use if there aren’t any available to fit you, or if the gloves prevent you from working, or if there are only limited amounts leaving some employees without protection.
Read More

All employers must provide all equipment that is to be worn or used to protect their employers from risks from hazards in the workplace. This equipment is known as personal protective equipment, or PPE for short.

This equipment comes in all shapes and sizes and can be anything from safety goggles, ear protectors, high visibility clothing, protective footwear, or gloves, depending on the type workplace and the nature of the hazards involved.

All employers have a duty to not only provide this equipment but to also deliver appropriate training on how to use the equipment. Employers are responsible for the full costs of this equipment, and they should not ask you for any contributions for this equipment whatsoever. They should also ensure that the PPE is kept, maintained, and stored correctly so it can offer the user the fullest protection it can.
Read More

What should you do if you have an accident at work?

Naturally, you should firstly seek medical attention to make sure you are okay!  At the end of the day, nothing is more important than your wellbeing.  Once you are sure you are fine you should report your accident to your manager or supervisor and make sure that a record is properly kept of your accident by your employer.

All employers are legally required to keep an accident book.  It is necessary to record all accidents in this book and it is good practice to even record near misses in the workplace.  For example, if you trip over something that shouldn’t have been there but don’t fall and hit the ground or injure yourself, you should still report this so that action be taken in order to prevent such incidents happening again.
Read More

Any injury can end up being debilitating – but when it’s a vital limb we use as part of our everyday lives, the things we are normally able to do can end up being severely restricted.

A trip over a dangerous hazard or a slip on a wet floor can leave you falling to the ground, and doing what we all do when we are falling – instinctively put out your arms to break your fall! Whilst this vital instinctive defensive mechanism can minimise the damage to your body, you are likely to suffer a hard knock at the very least, if not a break in any area of your arm caused by the impact of the fall.

The common injuries we see here are fractures and dislocations to the wrists, fingers, and elbows, unless you’re luck enough to escape with soft tissue damage instead. The soft tissue injuries you can get can be equally as damaging and may leave you feeling tender for quite some time. If you suffer from ligament damage you could be in an even worse position as many ligament ruptures can be impossible to repair, leaving you needing some from of reconstructive surgery.
Read More

One of the most important things in helping to bring a successful claim for compensation if you have had an accident at work is to ensure that you have reported your accident.  If you do this there is a hard record of your accident and there should not be any disputes later on as to whether the accident happened or not.  Reporting your accident really is an excellent staring point.

Naturally, if you require urgent medical attention this you should be the first thing you seek.  At the end of the day, nothing is more important than your being okay.  But, once you have sought medical attention, make sure to get your accident recorded in the accident book at work and to inform your Manager of what has happened.

It is important to know that all employers are required by law to have an accident book and you should be made aware as to where it is kept.  You should also know that all accidents should be reported in the accident book, and near misses should be reported as well. 
Read More

Given that work takes up such a huge amount of our lives nowadays, we expect to be safe when working; i.e. not running in to any hazards whilst we get on with our jobs. Health and Safety in the workplace is of paramount importance, and employers must adhere to loads of rules and regulations to make sure employees do not come to harm whilst in the workplace.

Whilst differing rules and regulations apply more to varying areas of employment, one of the most basic areas of health and safety law that applies to any employment situation is tripping hazards!

We get a lot of enquiries from people looking to make compensation claims for tripping injuries at work. At the end of the day, it’s so easy to get caught out. A tile on the floor becomes raised and isn’t inspected or maintained regularly enough by the employer, and you have yourself an employee tripping over an obvious and dangerous defect. A colleague leaves some bags in a corridor and you walk straight in to them; the likelihood is you ending up on the floor, humiliated, and injured.
Read More

If you ever injure yourself in the workplace, its good practice to report it to a superior as soon after the accident as possible; permitting you don’t need urgent medical attention or anything. No matter how big or small the injury is, you would be wise to notify someone and get it properly recorded to make sure there is a solid record of exactly what happened.

This is especially useful for making a claim for compensation. So if you are considering making one and haven’t yet reported the injury, I’d speak to your employer as soon as you can!

So, here’s a little advice on reporting the accident and what happens next:
Read More

Manual handling injuries can be devastating; the back is, after all, one of the most important parts of our bodies. Injuring your back can range from discomfort to immobility. Its important that we look after our backs, so its important that we lift in the right way to make sure that we never end up injuring ourselves in the line of duty for our employers.

Manual Handling affects everyone – even the office workers that every now and then need to carry a stack of files or a box of paper from A to B need to make sure that they are doing it in the right way to avoid injury. For those of you where manual handling is an active part of your daily routine, I’d like to think you know the dangers and the health and safety rules inside out.

Rules and Regulations
Read More

Depending on your choice of profession, you may find yourself exposed to all sorts of weird, wonderful, and potentially dangerous equipment that is necessary for you to use to carry out your job. If you’re mainly office based like me, the only equipment I use other than my computer is a phone, a pen, and a stapler now and then! So there isn’t much danger in it for me – although if you are computer based, make sure you’ve done your Display Screen Equipment tests…

Alternatively, those of you working on a construction site will be using power tools, ladders, cement mixers, plant machinery, and all sorts of potentially lethal things; so it goes without saying that adequate training and supervision is needed for the use of this kind of work equipment…

The Law
Read More