health & safety

[frodsham]

I worked for a company as a caretaker. Part of my training included attending a manual handling course which i did. My job entailed on a daily basis carrying boxes and other items up and down a steep set of stairs. there was no other way to this storage area. I constantly badgered my bosses regarding the danger of this and eventually I had an accident by losing my footing on the stairs and twisting my back. Even though went on a manual handling course and I carried all items as instructed in the course, are my managers liable for neglect even though they sent me on a course, and yet still forced me to convey goods up and down stairs.

[bednobs]

how did they force you? Are you saying that despite you knowing it was beyond your capabilities and dangerous to do, you did it anyway? It sounds to me like they didn't provide you a safe working environment, but surely you must bear some of the responsibility in this. Unless they threatened to sack you unless you did it, i cant really see why you continued

[Hymie]

Health & Safety liability/compensation doesn�t work quite as bednobs would have you believe.

Consider the following workplace scenario:-
Workers are provided with safety footwear and instructed by supervisors to wear them at all times while at work. The company has also sent each employee on a health & safety course, specifically dealing with foot safety at work.

Despite this, employees regularly flout the instruction to wear safety footwear at work, (are observed by superiors) and are not reprimanded for not wearing safety shoes.

An employee suffers a foot injury at work (while not wearing safety shoes), and sues the company for compensation. The employer�s defence would be that they provided safety footwear, instruction that it must be worn at all times � together with appropriate training.
By and large, the employers defence would fail � since they knew that staff were not following their instruction in relation to health & safety.

Each compensation claim would be assessed on its own merits, but in the above example, the injured employee might see any compensation cut by 10 � 20% for not following company policy. The lions share of the blame would be placed on the employer for not ensuring employees complied with the rules.

In your case, I would expect the company to be found liable 100%, since you informed them of the unsafe practice, and they encouraged you to continue.

I would advise you to seek advice from your CAB in the first instance, they may well involve the HSE (did you take more than three consecutive days off as a result of your injury?). It may be that you end up having to sue your employer for compensation.

Having indisputable proof that your superiors knew you were carrying stuff un-safely, may well be crucial to any compensation claim you might have.

[bednobs]

Good answer hymie, however, dosent the employee bear any responsibility by carrying out acts that they know could harm them?

[Hymie]

Indeed, employees have a responsibility to ensure that they work safely (taking into consideration their own safety and that of others) and comply with company safety procedures/policies.

But once an employer is aware that employees are working in an unsafe manner and does nothing to stop it, their grounds for a defence against a health & safety violation are all but gone.

[Hymie]

Although my posts may give the impression that frodsham is on to a sure thing with regards any compensation claim for injury � my advice to the employer would be to ensure that an assessment of the activity frodsham was undertaking (retrospectively if necessary) has been conducted. This could be conducted by their own health & safety personnel or by a third party called in.

If this assessment shows that there was no undue risk of injury � then they would have a defense against a compensation claim. This might prove difficult, given that frodsham raised concerns over the activity, which subsequently resulted in an accident.

[frodsham]

Thanks to all who answered. The fact is I did report the danger of this to the health & safety team and asked for assistance re this hazard . Sadly none was forthcoming and consequently I was largely ignored.