August 12, 2014 9.45 am This story is over 115 months old

All in a day’s work – Are you safe from injury?

Employers care duty: Is your workplace a safe one to operate in? Ringrose Law’s John Knight looks at what employers should do to keep you protected from injury.

After a busy weekend and time with the family, when the alarm goes off on a Monday morning it can be a struggle to go back to work and start another working week. We all look forward to Friday! The last thing on your mind is that something may go wrong and your life may be changed forever.

This for a few however is reality. In 2012/13, there were 78,222 reported non-fatal injuries to employees. Of these, 19,707 were reported major injuries; the most common kinds of accident involved slips or trips (43%), and falls from a height (13%).

When we head to work, we are under the impression that we will be safe and will be back in time for dinner with the family, however there were 148 fatal injuries to workers in the UK in 2012/2013, which of the main industrial sectors, construction, agriculture and waste and recycling had the highest rates, all sectors prominent in Lincolnshire.

Although people may not realise or understand, an employer is under a duty to take reasonable care of its employees’ health and safety, and has a duty to ensure the safety of its employees. This standard requires the employer to assess the potential risk of injury against the harm it would cause the employee and the cost of putting safety precautions in.

An employer must provide safe premises, a safe place to work, safe plant, material and equipment and a safe system of working.

If you are in an accident at work, it may not be at the fault of your employer, however if it could have been avoided then you may have a claim for personal injury. A successful claim can help you recover lost wages as a result of time off and even provide you with private medical treatment.

People can be wary of making a claim against their employer for fear of reprisals, being labelled a trouble maker or the worry that it may affect the companies’ finances. Employers are legally required to have employer’s liability insurance, for this very reason. This covers full-time and part-time employees, and self-employed contractors they hire and temporary staff, apprentices and volunteers.

If you have suffered an injury, caused for example by lifting or manual handling, by a slip and trip or you believe you sustained an injury due to lack of training, lack of safety equipment or faulty work equipment, then contact our Personal Injury team today at Ringrose Law Solicitors where we can advise you if you have a claim. Where an employer fails to comply with their duty to keep their employees safe, we are very proud to be able to help workers get the compensation they deserve.

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John Knight is the Head of the Personal Injury and Medical Negligence departments at Ringrose Law. He has worked in the Personal Injury team at Ringrose Law since 2003, and particularly specialises in complex and high value claims such as accidents at work, road traffic accidents and accidents resulting in death. He also specialises in representing families at inquests and helping people suffering serious injuries from assaults or other criminal activities via the Criminal Injury Compensation Authority.