Workplace accidents

Martin Nolan
0113 320 5000
info@winstonsolicitors.co.uk

"thank you for the professional,
courteous and efficient way in
which you dealt with my claim"

The law

All employers have a basic legal duty to take reasonable care for the safety of their workers. If an employee has an accident at work and is injured then an employer can be held responsible for that accident if it can be proved that the employer is negligent.

Employers duty

Employer's duty to take reasonable care

An employer's duty to take reasonable care can be split into four main obligations. These are to provide:

Safe equipment and machinery.
Safe and competent work mates.
A safe system of work.
A safe place of work.

The above duties exist in common law and are laws that have been created and developed over the years by decisions of judges in particular Court cases. However, a framework of statutory legislation and laws created by Parliament also cover the above duties and provide protection to employees.

Health & safety

Safe equipment and machinery

Employers must provide safe equipment and machinery. This means that tools, machines and equipment used by employees must be reasonably safe and adequate for the purpose for which they were intended. This also means the employers must provide safe working premises. For example, if the floor is slippery or uneven the employers can be held liable if they knew of the defect or ought to have known of it.

Employers have a duty to take precautions where necessary to avoid electrical failure. A regular system of maintenance and inspection is obligatory and all businesses should conduct regular PAT testing to ensure employee or public safety is maximised.

Under the Employers Liability (Defective Equipment) Act 1969 employers will still be held liable to the employee for providing equipment that was made and manufactured in a negligent manner by another company. This avoids the potential problems of an employee trying to sue the manufacturer who may well be abroad or have gone out of business.

Safe and competent work colleagues

Employers are directly responsible for the negligence of their employees. If one employee is negligent and injures another employee, the injured employee can sue the employee and claim compensation. Employers must take reasonable care when selecting and training their workforce. They must give proper information, instructions and training to ensure that their employees carry out their work in an environment that is safe to everybody.

A safe system of work

Employers must have safe systems of work in place. This duty forces employers to introduce safe systems of work and ensure that the systems are maintained and modified as necessary. This includes areas such as the physical layout of work, the sequence in which the work is to be done, the giving of warnings and notices, providing information and training, and establishing safe working conditions.

If employers fail to ensure that a safe system is in use and an employee then has an accident as a result the employers will be held responsible and will have to pay the employee compensation.

A safe place of work

An employer must provide a safe place of work. This is a general duty that often overlaps with the others. There are various laws created by parliament that provide protection in this area.

If you beleive that you are suffering from an industrial disease, injury or disorder as a result of work you may be entitled to make a claim for compensation.

We have an experienced team of solicitors to help you decide if you have a case, in what is a specialised area of law.

Health and Safety Executive

Employers are under a duty to report to the Health and Safety Executive any accident that involves major injury or death. These include fractures, amputations, or injuries that involve the injured person being hospitalised for more than 24 hours. Also any major incident such as explosions collapse of equipment etc must be reported. The report must be made immediately and confirmed in writing within 7 days.

About personal injury claims

If your injury occurred whilst you were at work, please contact us today to see if you may have the right to claim compensation.

This is what one of our clients recently said about our Personal Injury service: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank you both for the professional courteous and efficient way in which you dealt with my claim. Even though there was a significant delay as a result of the complication to my back you respected my views and pursued the case to its fullest extent resulting in a more than satisfactory settlement. I would have no hesitation in recommending you to others who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in a similar position" >>read more

Meet our Personal Injury Team >>click here