Workplace Accident Claim

Reasons Why We Should Never Hesitate In Making A Workplace Accident Claim

When an accident takes place in the workplace which could quite reasonably be attributed to the negligence or an oversight of the employer, then both fair play and the law requires that the employer pays compensation to the involved party. A workplace can be such a complex environment and it can often be very difficult to foresee where or when an accident might take place. Whilst an employer may from time to time suggest that the employee should have been more aware, or that they might have foreseen that an injury might take place if he or she performed a certain action, the employer is nevertheless legally responsible to make sure that the employee is kept safe from harm.

Examples of workplace injuries resulting in a successful compensation claim

Recently, a long-term employee of a major automobile manufacture was awarded compensation due to a combination of workplace injuries. Firstly, the employee was initially injured when attempting to lift a box of automobile parts, which you would otherwise have thought to be a fairly straightforward action. However, the boxes were stored in such a way that they interlocked with boxes beneath them. Consequently, when the man went to lift one box it locked on to the boxes beneath, causing the entire weight to be considerably greater than the man had anticipated.

Workplace accidents caused by inattention to a pre-existing health and safety issue

It turned out that there had previously been some complaints about the way that the boxes were being stacked, but nothing had been done to fix the problem. Consequently, the automobile manufacture settled out of court. The injury had turned out to be significant enough that it precluded the employee in question from taking part in hobbies and pastimes that he had previously enjoyed, such as gardening and playing golf.

It is however interesting to note that in this case the man did not take any action until he was further injured in a separate accident during the following year, when his leg fell through a rotten floorboard in one of the toilet areas. This aggravated the initial injury and prompted him to get in touch with his solicitor to talk about a workplace accident claim. As he had worked for the automobile manufacture for almost a quarter century, he may well have been a little hesitant in coming forward initially to pursue a claim for compensation and it is ironic that it took yet another accident at the same facility before he was motivated to actually consult with a solicitor accordingly.

There are a couple of morals to this story

Firstly, as we can see there are many different ways that we can become injured in a workplace environment and should always be on our guard, but secondly, we must consider talking to legal representatives as soon as possible after any accident, to see what our options are. Often, a statute of limitations will limit the amount of time that we have to come forward. We should never again “work through" the pain, just because we feel a debt of responsibility to the employer in one way or the other.