Manual handling involves moving objects or items from one place to another by lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying or lowering. It is not only, as many people think, the fact that something is heavy which necessarily causes injury, but it could arise from the way in which something was moved or handled. This could even occur if an object was relatively light by repeating the movement many times.

What must employers do?

Where it is reasonably practicable, employers should remove the need for their employees to handle objects manually where there is a risk of being injured. This could be achieved by finding mechanical solutions to reduce the need for manual handling by employees.
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Commonly a manhole cover accident may occur due to the manhole being uncovered, or by the cover being unsecured or damaged.

It may not always be clear who the manhole cover is owned by.  Manhole covers can be owned by local councils, water boards, electricity companies, gas boards and many other type of similar company. Each one of these companies and boards have a duty to protect you from harm, as far as is ‘reasonably practical‘ under S41 of The Highways Act 1980 and under the general scope of the Occupiers Liability Act.

There may be a system of inspection in place by the council or company that owns it to ensure that the manhole cover is maintained and is safe. Inspections may check for any defects and ensure that regular maintenance is carried out. If there are any complaints made about the manhole covers, there is a duty to investigate and to ensure that the defect is rectified.
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The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1992 (or “PUWER” for short) was brought in to ensure that all equipment used in most work environments meets a minimum standard of safety. It also requires that the equipment is safely maintained by employers.

What falls within PUWER?

PUWER has a very wide remit and includes employers which provide equipment for their employees to carry out their work. It includes local councils, businesses and charities. The equipment which falls within the remit is similarly wide in scope. It includes any machinery, appliance, apparatus, or a combination of components which form a common end but work as one. This is an extremely wide list of employers and equipment but it is necessary keep the employers providing equipment in its remit.
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The Pre-Action Protocol for Employers’ Liability (EL) and Public Liability (PL) claims was brought into force on 31^st July 2013 and applies to most employer and public liability cases which are valued between £1,000 and £25,000.

What the Protocol aims to Achieve

The Protocol goes into detail about what the court would expect the parties to do before the need to commence court proceedings. The Protocol ensures that the damages for easily resolvable claims are paid within a reasonable time. This avoids a lengthy waiting time to be compensated.
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April saw the biggest shakeup in the personal injury claiming world when the government in their absolute and infinite wisdom decided to attack access to justice by making certain things unrecoverable from the other side. The result is that most other law firms are now charging clients a huge percentage of their compensation if the claim succeeds.

In addition to this, most slip and trip accident claims that occur on or after 31^st July 2013 will be pursued under a new protocol which is similar to the one used for road accident claims. This new protocol is designed for speed and efficiency for claiming, but the government have fixed the fees at such a low rate that it again hampers the quality of legal services that other law firms can offer unless charges are made to clients.

So we are now in a situation where the innocent victims who have been injured through no fault of their own, but through the negligence of someone else, are having to pay to make a claim! The whole idea behind claiming is to put the victim back in a pre-accident position; losing money doesn’t do that.
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Accidents in warehouses, where forklift trucks are common, are fairly frequent and we deal with quite a large volume of claims for personal injury compensation from employers insurance after an accident at work. When it comes to forklift truck accidents, one of the most common ones is getting your foot run over by a colleague. It can be easily done.

So if you have had your foot run over by a colleague at work because they were not paying attention or were perhaps travelling too fast, what are your rights for making a personal injury compensation claim? Are you covered, and what can you claim for?

You have a good claim

First things first, prospects wise you have a fairly decent chance at winning the claim. If a colleague is negligent and causes an injury to a co-worker, you can make a claim from your employers insurance under the scope of vicarious liability. Vicarious liability simply means that the negligence of a co-worker falls on your employer. So you don’t need to worry about suing your mate at work because your employers insurance will cover you.
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As soon as you start your new job, the duty of care that your employer owes to all of their employees starts immediately. There is no honeymoon period or anything like that – the duty starts from the first second you start working for them. This fact can lead to a lot of accidents at work.

The duty is on your employer to ensure that any task you are requested to do will be able to be carried out in a safe way. So if the task at hand requires you to be trained, your employer is responsible for the training. Let’s look at a few examples:

Manual Handling – if you are instructed to undertake any manual handling activities and your new employer has not yet trained you, if you sustain injury because of the lack of training, you may have a claim for compensation against them.
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Most accidents that occur on or after 31^st July 2013 will be pursued under a new protocol that differs significantly to the traditional way of pursuing these claims to put them more in line with the Road Traffic Accident Protocol system. Essentially, most claims against employers or in public places like shops, restaurants, or out on the highway will now be pursued using a portal system similar to that of road accidents.

So what does this mean for people wanting to make a claim for personal injury compensation?

Well the idea behind the system is that claims are settled much quicker without the need for lengthy litigation and without the need for solicitor costs for letters and telephone calls. The whole portal system means that information is shared between parties electronically. In line with this system, legal fees that law firms receive have been dramatically, and I mean dramatically, cut. In fact, the fees we receive now could potentially lead to poor levels of service from many firms (not us! Read on for more info!)
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Most law firms are now charging up to 25% for you to make a claim for an accident at work. This is due to recent legal fee changes that mean lawyers can no longer recover all of their legal fees from the other side.

Before the changes in April, things were a lot more straight forward – lawyers could recover all legal fees from the other side, so most people get 100% of their payout. But since the changes, the recovery of two things have been abolished. One is called a Success Fee, and the other is called an After The Event insurance premium.

The 25% is normally to cover the success fee – and 25% is common because this is the maximum a lawyer can take from a client for the Success Fee. On top of that, a lot of law firms are also asking for payment of the unrecoverable insurance as well.
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Many people at some time in their life have been around stock cages. Anyone who has worked in retail whilst doing their studies, or as a career, will be used to using them on a daily basis. Most places I have worked at and most people I know who have worked with them all suggest the same thing – they can be fairly dangerous pieces of equipment!

Your employer has an important duty to look after your wellbeing, and they therefore have a duty to ensure that you must adhere to a safe system of work. If an unsafe system of work is adopted, and you are injured as a result, there may be a claim for compensation to answer for. When it comes to dangerously stacked stock cages, it commonly comes down to one of a few scenarios:
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