Last year there were 1.2 million working people who were suffering with an injury or illness which they believed was caused, or made worse, by their work. In total, nearly 30 million days were lost during last year alone because of work related illness or injury.
Though these numbers may seem very high, they are actually very small when looked at in percentage terms. These figures equate to just 870 reportable injuries per 100,000 workers. The organisation responsible for managing health and safety in the workplace are the HSE (Health and Safety Executive). The HSE supply employers with the guidelines and regulations they are required to follow in order to keep their employees safe.
In the last 30 years the HSE have made the workplace significantly safer. In the period between 1974 and 2009 the rate of fatal injuries in the workplace per 100,000 people fell by 84%. Though a large part of this reduction is due to a shift from heavy manual work to lighter services it is also largely down to risks in the workplace being managed better.
The work that the HSE do means that employers have no excuse for not ensuring your health and safety at work. If you have suffered an accident at work or a work related illness due to circumstances which, you believe, should have been managed better by your employer, then it is likely that you have grounds for a compensation claim. If your injury or illness is caused by your work then it should not be you that has to meet the financial cost of it. Work accident claims procedures are designed to award the employee with enough monetary compensation to cover the full cost of the injury. This may include ongoing treatment, operations, or counselling.
If you have suffered an injury or illness because of work then you should not feel bad about pursuing a work accident claim. You may be legally entitled to compensation, but it is up to you to make the first step by making a claim. Employers have insurance that covers the costs of work accident claims. It is also illegal for an employer to sack an employee due to work accident claims.
The work accident claims procedure is designed to ensure that those with a genuine claim can be adequately compensated. However, it is important to remember that work accident claims must be made no more than 3 years following the incident. This means that if you have suffered an accident and it was genuinely not your fault then you should seek legal advice as soon as possible.
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