Firms ‘should improve safety to avoid compensation claims’

Posted 18/11/2009

Employers have been reminded of the need to provide safe systems of work on their premises if they are to avoid compensation claims from injured workers.

Trade union GMB has stated that employees performing potentially dangerous activities such as lifting must be safeguarded to help them avoid the risk of personal injury, reports the Daily Gazette.

The warning comes after the union helped a school worker make a compensation claim against Essex County Council for a spinal injury sustained when lifting a heavy box in 2006.

As a result of this personal injury, she has since been unable to work and has now been awarded a substantial sum in compensation.

Rose Conroy of the GMB said: “Employers must make sure every job involving lifting, no matter how small, is assessed to make sure it is conducted in the safest way possible.”

According to figures from the Health and Safety Executive, UK businesses lose out on around 11.6 million working days each year as a result of work-related musculoskeletal disorders such as spinal injury.