Understand how to deal with Accidents at Work

Whist at work your employer has the responsibility of recording all accidents in an accident book, if an accident is serious enough your employer has a legal obligation to report these accidents. If you become unable to work due to an incident at work your employer should pay you sick pay, but only if you are entitled to it. There are only certain accidents an employer has to report in the work place, below is a list of these:• Death• Major injuries (for example a Head Injury)• Dangerous incidents • Any other injury that stops an employee from doing their normal work for more than three daysIn general the reporting of these incidents is done by the employer, but just like any other incident you come across in life it is a good job to get involved yourself. So, who is responsible for safety in the workplace? Your employer is responsible for the safety of its staff and also the safety of any visitors but you as the employee are also responsible and should take in to account the dangers in a work place. Safety in the work place is immensely important to your employer due to amount days lost; a recent article by the BBC said that A total of 5.2m working days were lost by North West-based businesses through injury and ill health last year, according to an opinion survey. If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident at work, which was not your fault and you suffer from a workplace injury, you may be able to make a personal injury claim for compensation. Like all claims, if you plan to claim, you will need to do the following: prove that the injury, illness or disease you have sustained is due to negligence by your employer, it is also advised that you appoint a personal injury solicitor; it is their job to assist you with your claim. As with all injury compensation claims, you would need to prove that your injury, illness or disease was caused as a result of the negligence of another party (in this case your employer) and once you appoint a personal injury solicitor, they will assist you in compiling your evidence and presenting it to the third party insurers. Some claims can be settled within months others can take years, sometimes you need to decide whether it is worth wile to claim. To summarise these points do the following if you have an accident in the workplace: • Make sure you record any injury like in an 'accident book' • If need be, make sure your employer has reported it • Check your contract or written statement of employment for information about sick or accident pay• If there's a dispute, try to sort it out with your employer• If there are health and safety problems at work, point them out to your employer or the employee safety representative, and ask for them to be dealt with it.
About the Author: You can obtain more information about an accident at work by contacting an expert such as the author of this article. They can also tell you if the case is more a matter of Medical Negligence rather than just a work accident.