I Had An Accident At Work – What Are My Rights?

In any workplace, there are certain laws that mean that your employer has a duty of care towards you. This means that employees and anyone who enters onto the site of the business has to be reasonable protected from anything that can cause them harm.

In order to achieve this, a number of things must be done. These include:

• Carrying out regular risk assessments that address all potential harm in the workplace
• Giving all employees information about the risks that are in their workplace and how they are protected, in addition to instructing and training on how to avoid them
• Consulting employees on health and safety issues. This consultation must either be direct, or through a safety representative that is elected by the workforce or appointed by the trade union

If, as an employee, you feel that you are being exposed to dangers in your working environment, then you must raise your concerns as soon as possible.

If these concerns are ignored and you have suffered an accident at work because of your employer’s inability to protect you, you have the right to make a claim against them.

When you’ve had an accident at work, there are a few things that you can do in the aftermath of your injury that can help you during your compensation case. It is understandable if you are unable to do some of these things when you have just had a serious accident, but it can be a good idea to:

• Take photographs of the injury that you have sustained
• Take photographs of whatever it was that was the cause of your accident
• Take the details of any witnesses to your accident
• Make notes about your accident as soon as possible
• Ask witnesses to make any note about your accident

Your workplace is legally obliged to keep a workplace accident book, so it is also important that you ensure that your accident has been logged.

If there is anything that you are unsure of in regard to your accident at work, get in touch with our expert industrial disease solicitors for advice on what the next steps are.