Case Study

Mark had worked as a fork lift truck driver all his life. He loved his work and had only a few years to go before he retired. His company recycled waste material.

He was taking bales of waste material from a conveyer belt and putting them on the back of a waiting lorry. During this process the bales sometimes fell off his forks and when this happened he had to get a colleague in a JCB to help put them back on.

“The management knew we did the job this way, there was no other way to get the bales back on the forklift.”

On the day of his accident, a new employee whilst putting the bale on Mark’s forklift misjudged and lifted Mark’s forklift in to the air.

“I was screaming at him to not release the forks because I knew my forklift would crash to the floor. Unfortunately he couldn’t hear me”

Marks forklift crashed to floor breaking Mark’s back. He was taken to hospital where he was kept in for over 2 weeks. When he was released he had to wear a large back cast for over 2 months. Mark’s back will never be the same again.

“Some days are better than others, but I’ve been told that I can never drive a forklift again as it would shake my body too much. I tried to go back to my old employer about 8 months after the accident, but they told me if they had nothing else that I could do. I was devastated I had worked for them for over 15 years. Thankfully, my union, the GMB, arranged a solicitor and I didn’t have to pay anything at all”

Francis Alexander knew straight away how to help Mark. It seemed clear that the Management at Marks work had condoned an unsafe working practice; Francis Alexander began to investigate and after talking with Mark took on his case on a no win no fee basis, backed by his union. Francis Alexander explained to Mark that his employer was under a duty of care to protect his health and safety whilst he was at work and that by allowing an unsafe working practice to continue they had not done this and were therefore vicariously liable for his injuries, through the fault of the JCB driver.

Francis Alexander wrote to Mark’s employer who quickly passed the matter onto their insurance company. As Francis Alexander explained to Mark all employers are covered by insurance and it was with the insurer we would negotiate with, not Mark’s employer.

Whilst Mark had been out of work, he had began to run up debts and was worried that he was going to have to wait for years before receiving any compensation. In serious cases where liability is admitted a solicitor can request an interim payment. which is exactly what Francis Alexander did for Mark, managing to get him an interim payment of £10,000 so that he could pay off debts. Mark eventually recovered over £85,000 for his injuries.

“For me it wasn’t just about the money, I wanted the company to recognise my loyal service for 15 years. I can’t thank Francis Alexander enough. From the very first day they were helpful and understanding. They always had time for a quick chat when I wanted something explaining, they made it all easy to understand and I’m so glad they represented me, I’d recommend them to anyone.”

Can you claim?

You will have to prove that your employer has caused the injury by his failure to take reasonable care to prevent injury to you - his employee (there are different standards required in respect of sub-contractors or visitors to premises). This means he must provide:

• a safe way for you to carry out your work
• safe premises in which to work
• suitable materials and equipment, plus training and supervision in how to use them
• competent staff

Your employer must try to ensure that you carry out your work in the safest way possible bearing in mind the type of job that you do, the materials and equipment that you work with and the tasks involved. Whether or not he has done this is quite often just down to the facts of the case, but standards within the industry can often be used as a benchmark against which to judge whether the employer has done enough to protect his employee.

If there are inherent or known dangers then the employee needs to be advised of these and properly trained in the tasks he is required to do in order to avoid them. If for example your job involved a lot of lifting then employees should be advised on the best way to lift the items in order to prevent injury, and regular checks should be made to ensure that these methods are being adopted.

Safe premises in which to work

Your employer needs to ensure that the place, or places, where you work and their premises in general are safe for their staff. The most obvious example of a breach of this duty would be if office floors were left wet or cluttered with files or cables, on which employees slipped or tripped up. But employers are also responsible for the heating and ventilation of their premises, the lighting and even the car park.

Suitable materials and equipment

Your employer is responsible for providing you with safe and suitable equipment with which to do your job, training you in how to use it, inspecting and maintaining it, and ensuring that it is used correctly through training and supervision.
This covers all the equipment that you may use from your chair or computer to a pneumatic drill or the dustbin man's wagon. Whatever the equipment your employer has responsibility for it and the way you use it.

Competent staff

Your employer must ensure, to the best of his ability, that the people that he employs around you are competent in their jobs, and do not put others at risk by their actions; if an employee injures another through a failure to use equipment properly or a drink or drugs problem, or simply when “messing around”, then the employer is potentially liable for those actions.