Work Accident Claims: Should You Make a Claim or Not?
You may be entitled to file a work accident compensation claim if you are involved in an accident at work or if you contract an industrial illness while performing your normal scope of duties at your place of employment.
It is the legal responsibility of all employers to provide safe and secure working environments for all of their employees. This responsibility covers a number of significant areas, including but not limited to:
A physically safe environment. Floors should be dry and clean, equipment and materials should be properly stored, and the like.
Materials should be suitable to the activities at hand and in good working order. Faulty or badly maintained equipment is a common cause of accidents. Even if the equipment you are using is supplied by a subcontractor or another company, you may still be entitled to file a claim as your employer has the ultimate responsibility regarding your work environment.
Proper training and a set of work procedures that are themselves safe and unlikely cause injury if they are properly followed.
Co -workers who have also been properly trained and who are competent to carry out their specific job-related activities.
Along with providing a safe working environment, an employer is also required to carry workers compensation insurance to cover the cost of any claim that might be made by one of their employees. Because of this requirement, an injured employee need not worry that the money necessary to cover their claim is coming directly out of the employer's pockets as it will in fact be paid by the insurance company instead.
Despite it being their legal right to do so, sometimes an injured employee is reluctant to file a work accident claim out of fear of being fired should they do so. An employer cannot legally fire an employee for making an accident claim due to an injury at work. If they do so, it is considered to be an unfair dismissal and entitle you to file a separate claim for additional compensation under employment law.
A competent and experienced personal injury solicitor will help you work through the various aspects of your work accident claim case and advise you on the necessity of doing so if it gets to that point. (Testifying against your employer might not be as bad as it sounds if you consider the fact that by helping them correct the problem issues now, as a result of your injury, you may be saving them from larger awards or greater risk and problems from similar issues in the future.)
