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Accidents at Work - Personal Injury Compensation Claims with clickandclaim's Personal Injury Solicitors
Accidents at work often result in serious personal injury, which is why clickandclaim's personal injury solicitors are here to advise you on compensation claims.
Work based injuries are a very common occurrence. This is perhaps not surprising given that full time workers spend most of their time at work, including travelling to and from work. The most common kinds of fatal injury to workers in recent years have been (1) falling from a height, (2) being struck by a moving vehicle and (3) being struck by a moving or falling object. These three kinds of accident accounted for 54% of all fatal injuries to workers in 2005/06. In the same year there were in total some 212 fatal injuries (deaths) sustained in all different types of accidents at work.
There were 28,605 major injuries which covered serious injuries including fractures, amputations and other injuries leading to resuscitation or 24 hour or longer admittance to hospital. For 2005/06 there were 117,471 other injuries which caused an absence from work of over 3 days.
It has long been established that employers owe to their employees a duty of care which includes, amongst other things, providing a safe place of work, a safe system of work, safe work equipment and competent staff. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 placed general duties on all employers to protect the health and safety of their employees. Nowadays, most of the specific duties of employers towards employees are set out in legislation. This has happened mainly because of the UK being part of the EU. Laws have been implemented so as to comply with European Directives. It could be argued that this is one of the better things to come out of membership of the EU. The most important pieces of legislation to be introduced in relation to the duties of employers are:-
(1) Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (updated 2002)
(2) Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (updated 2002)
(3) Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (updated 2002)
(4) Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (updated in 2002)
(5) Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (updated
2002.)
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 set out what an employer has to do so as to comply with the regulations relating to safety in the workplace and include maintenance of the workplace, equipment, devices and systems; conditions of floors and traffic routes; steps to be taken to avoid falls or falling objects. The regulations also cover matters of health and welfare of employees, such as ventilation, temperature, lighting, cleanliness, provision of WC’s and washing facilities etc.
The Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 cover the assessment, maintenance and provision of suitable personal protective equipment (e.g. gloves, goggles, overalls, footwear etc), the provision of information, instruction, and training in the use of such equipment.
The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 cover, amongst other things, the provision of suitable work equipment, the maintenance of it, information, instructions and training in the use of it as well as protection against specific hazards.
The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 require employers, so far as they reasonably can, to avoid the need for employees to undertake any manual handling operations which involve a risk of injury and where that can not be avoided, to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of such operations.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 relate to workstations (commonly a desk, chair, computer and screen, printer, telephone etc) and require employers to perform a suitable and sufficient analysis of workstations to assess the health and safety risks. They also cover work routines, eye tests, the provision of training and information to employees.
If an employer does not comply with the requirements of any of the regulations and as a consequence, an employee sustains injury then that employee would have a valid claim for compensation against his/her employer.
If an accident at work occurred which did not involve the above mentioned regulations (e.g. one employee inadvertently drives a forklift truck over another employees foot) then the injured employee would also have a valid claim for compensation. In reality, such a claim would be dealt with by the employer’s insurance company. Compensation claims for accidents at work would include compensation for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity (known as General Damages) as well as other specific items of expense or loss (known as Special Damages) such as lost earnings whilst off work injured, cost of medication/prescriptions, travel expenses, the cost or value of care and assistance provided by others whilst incapacitated etc.
It is recognised that accidents at work will continue to happen despite all the relevant health and safety legislation and the duties imposed upon employers. That is why provision for compensation is made. Most employers are required by law to have insurance to cover their employees’ accidents at work (the Employer’s Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969). If you have had an accident at work and suffered injury then you should make a claim for compensation, it is your legal right to do so.
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