Information about injury at work

More accidents happen at work than anywhere else. In fact almost half of accidents that occur happen in the workplace. However it can be difficult for employees to bring a claim for compensation if personal injuries have been suffered. Many are scared of the possible "repercussions" if they take the firm that they are working for to court. Generally these fears are groundless as all employers are obliged by law to have Employer's Liability Insurance, which should cover them if an employee is injured in the workplace and action can be taken against employers who discriminate against employees simply because they are pursuing a legitimate compensation claim for personal accident injuries against the firm.

There is a strong crossover between liability in negligence (known by the lawyers as a common law duty) and duties which have been imposed by manmade law to cover specific situations (particularly Health & Safety regulations - see www.hse.gov.uk). There is a growing body of laws with which employers must comply or risk both criminal and civil prosecution.

A safe way for you to carry out your work
Your employer must try to ensure that you carry out your work in the safest way possible bearing in mind the type of job that you do, the materials and equipment that you work with and the tasks involved. Whether or not he has done this is quite often just down to the facts of the case, but standards within the industry can often be used as form of benchmark against which to judge whether the employer has done enough to protect his employee.

If there are inherent or known dangers then the employee needs to be advised of these and properly trained in the tasks he is required to do in order to avoid them. If for example your job involved a lot of lifting then employees should be advised on the best way to lift the items in order to prevent injury, and regular checks should be made to ensure that these methods are being adopted.

Safe premises in which to work
Your employer needs to ensure that the place, or places, where you work and their premises in general are safe for their staff. The most obvious example of a breach of this duty would be if office floors were left wet or cluttered with files or cables, on which employees slipped or tripped up. But employers are also responsible for the heating and ventilation of their premises, the lighting and even the car park.