Health and Safety at Work – preventing accidents

Just like employers, employees have an obligation to ensure a safe and healthy working environment. As an employee you have a responsibility for your health as well as the health of your colleagues. So if you have a concern about the health and safety in your workplace it is important that you speak to your employer straight away so the problem can be resolved.

You employer is the main person responsible for the safety of your health whilst you are carrying out your job but in order for this to work you need to co-operate fully with your employer to make sure that you carry out your job in the safest possible manner.

Your employer can’t expose you to risks so if you have pointed out aspects concerning the safety of your workplace to your employer and you have failed to receive a reply or an answer to your query then it is important that you speak to someone else who is in charge, the one thing that you shouldn’t do is carry out the job knowing you are at risk.

Risk assessments should be carried out on your place of work on a regular basis to ensure that your safety is the main priority and that you are being looked after at all times. These risk assessments need to be carried out by your employer as a way of spotting potential problems and hazards before they happen. It is important that if the results of these risk assessments demonstrate problems that these problems are handled immediately to stop incidents occurring. All of the results of these risk assessments should be noted down, whether the results are good or bad. This is important so that there is a record of the safety of your workplace so if the worst does occur and an accident does happen you can find out why.

It is thought that over one million people suffer injury in the workplace in the UK every year and the vast majority of these accidents are avoidable. Even though there have been huge improvements in health and safety in the workplace, many of them still remain dangerous. This is why your employer must try to ensure that you carry out your work in the safest way possible.

Some of the main accidents in the workplace occur due to the following:

• Defective machinery or dangerous machinery
• Slips or trips on debris or dangerous surfaces
• Injuries involving lifting or manual handling
• Injuries suffered in the Construction Industry
• Exposure to harmful and dangerous substances
• Employees exposed to violent attacks by patients or customers

The Health and Safety Executive estimate that individual employees lose around 558 million pounds a year in reduced income and additional expenditure as a result of accidents at work.

If you have an accident or injury in the workplace as a result of negligence on your employer’s behalf you could be entitled to make a claim for compensation. Remember you have a civil and legal right to make a claim for compensation if you have suffered due to the negligence of another person. For more information about pursuing a claim for compensation after an accident that was caused through no fault of your own then contact a lawyer/solicitor today and get your claim underway.