According to the Health and Safety Executive’s annual safety statistics for 2013/14

  • • 133 workers were killed at work
  • • 78,000 injuries to employees wetwre reported
  • • 1.2 million people suffered from a work-related illness

Unfortunately, what the above figures reveal is that many employees are not being properly protected whilst at work. However, as an employee there are laws in place to protect you.

Risk assessments

Your employer is required to carry out a risk assessment of your place of work. Depending upon the nature of your workplace, this is likely to require your employer to consider whether the activities and equipment used at work could cause harm, and if so, how the risks can be minimised or removed altogether.

Often, the steps required to minimise or remove risk will be very easy to implement – for example, a procedure for cleaning up spills as soon as they are noticed.

Reporting

The majority of employers are required to maintain an accident book to keep records of work-related incidents that cause injury. Employers are also required to report incidents that cause death or serious injuries, certain industrial diseases, and ‘dangerous occurrences’, which are incidents that could cause harm.

If you hurt yourself at work, it’s important to check that the incident has been noted in the accident book, and to ensure that the entry is factually correct. If you later decide to take advice on bringing a claim for personal injury, the accident book entry could be valuable evidence to support your claim.

Sick pay

Most employees will be able to claim statutory sick pay if they are ill (which includes being unable to work due to an injury at work) for four days in a row, and earn at least £109 per week.

Bringing a claim for an accident at work

If the worst does happen, and you are injured at work, you may be able to bring a claim for compensation against your employer. In these circumstances, the first thing you should do is speak to a specialist personal injury solicitor with specific expertise in work-related personal injury claims.

Speak to a work accident claim solicitor

Here at Farleys we have a dedicated team available to provide you with the expert support and advice you need to help you to decide whether or not to proceed with a personal injury claim. We know that it’s not always easy to decide whether or not make a claim against your employer, and we can provide you with impartial, expert advice to support you in that decision.

If you would like to speak to a work-related injury expert, please feel free to contact us and arrange an initial meeting on 0845 564 3844 or email us today.