Injury at work Question

terley · 23 Nov 2017 at 19:42

Energize said:
You should expect full sick pay if your employer was responsible for your injury, plus a little extra for pain and suffering.

Have you just politely asked your employer to compensate you for the loss of income for the 7 weeks?

If the employer doesn't have a sick pay policy in place then thats not true, also "a little extra", how do you justify that to the tax man?

Legal measures are put in place to ensure that the t's are cross and i's are dotted, he should seek advice from an injury lawyer if he wishes to recieve compensation and/or loss of earnings.

Uther · 23 Nov 2017 at 19:43

red eye said:
Say if you were to have an accident which resulted in 7 week sick note, an accident that could have been prevented if provided with the right equipment and in a roundabout sort of way you been told that your only getting ssp.

Also it’s evident that risk assessment has not done properly, safety guards removed, wrong type of ppe issued,Accident book as probably not been filled out or reported under riddor.

I’m asking for a friends next door nabours brothers cat.

Would you seek compensation?
What are the downsides?
Never done this before so I don’t know what to expect

Yes, and I have done on two occasions in the past, and got several thousand pounds out of it. The company really loved me...

terley · 23 Nov 2017 at 19:44

You cannot avoid the stigma and negative repercussions gained from suing your employer e.g. not getting as many promotions, legally they cannot discriminate.. But off-the-record they will.

Energize · 23 Nov 2017 at 19:46

terley said:
If the employer doesn't have a sick pay policy in place then thats not true, also "a little extra", how do you justify that to the tax man?

Legal measures are put in place to ensure that the t's are cross and i's are dotted, he should seek advice from an injury lawyer if he wishes to recieve compensation and/or loss of earnings.

What do you mean justify it to the tax man? If he's paid paye, tax will be deducted as normal.

Sick policy is irrelevant, if he has loss of earnings for 7 weeks due to workplace injury that's what he's entitled to.

Avenged7Fold said:
Strong arming your employer for a pay rise after blackmailing them with an injury claim is probably not the best strategy to accomplish this.

Well it's not technically blackmail, blackmail is making an unreasonable demand with menaces, asking for reasonable compensation or you'll be taking it to court is fairly reasonable.

terley said:
You cannot avoid the stigma and negative repercussions gained from suing your employer e.g. not getting as many promotions, legally they cannot discriminate.. But off-the-record they will.

This is true, there will be negative repercussions from going legal and if he's worked there for less than two years he can be dismissed for no reason.

Uther · 23 Nov 2017 at 19:49

terley said:
You cannot avoid the stigma and negative repercussions gained from suing your employer e.g. not getting as many promotions, legally they cannot discriminate.. But off-the-record they will.

I won't tell you about the time I got ACAS on their backs when they messed with our contracts then! Needless to say I was the first one out the door when redundancies were announced.

Vonhelmet · 23 Nov 2017 at 20:17

terley said:
You cannot avoid the stigma and negative repercussions gained from suing your employer e.g. not getting as many promotions, legally they cannot discriminate.. But off-the-record they will.

Sadly, this is true.

Dirk Diggler · 24 Nov 2017 at 05:32

red eye said:
no more like an out of court settlement.
I get a pay rise instead of a payment that is most likely to come from insurance saving them increased premiums.

They fix health and safety issues instead of me reporting possibly saving them a fine.

My advice would be to stop cooking up ideas in your head in order to justify your intentions. Decide if you want to take it further, and if so then lift the phone to that union you joined 2 weeks ago.

I bet if you had to get your payout, one of the first things you'd do afterwards is cancel your direct debit to the union.

bainbridge · 24 Nov 2017 at 07:32

If they're so lax about health and safety they'll undoubtedly try and cover their tracks and lie about the accident.

Get your facts straight about what can be proved and speak to the union.

red eye · 24 Nov 2017 at 08:13

Vonhelmet said:
If you attempt to bribe them, they can probably dismiss you out of hand for gross misconduct. Then you're screwed every which way.

Suppose it would be be

lude1962 said:
And someone gets killed because you failed to report your company.
When was your last manual handling course?

never had a manual handling course.
I would be reporting if not fixed, but that does not matter now as I will definitely be reporting.

red eye · 24 Nov 2017 at 08:35

String said:
My advice would be to stop cooking up ideas in your head in order to justify your intentions. Decide if you want to take it further, and if so then lift the phone to that union you joined 2 weeks ago.

I bet if you had to get your payout, one of the first things you'd do afterwards is cancel your direct debit to the union.

im not cooking, I have never done this before just want to know what I should and shouldn’t do, I am putting in a claim just waiting for a phone call.
I would keep the membership. I get discounts hot point white goods. Seriously I would keep it, they helped years ago when a fellow worker and ASSistant manager conspired to get me sacked. I got the days I was sacked paid and my full holiday and sick pay hours back.
So it don’t cost much and they’re there when I need them.

Nitefly · 24 Nov 2017 at 08:41

Did someone say fibromyalgia?

red eye · 24 Nov 2017 at 08:44

terley said:
You cannot avoid the stigma and negative repercussions gained from suing your employer e.g. not getting as many promotions, legally they cannot discriminate.. But off-the-record they will.

Promotions are rare and you have to be a urine tap sucking champ.

Avenged7Fold · 24 Nov 2017 at 11:19

Point he makes is that, they will still be able to discriminate without getting caught. If you think you were getting asked to do the crap jobs before, then they may try and prove you wrong. I worked for a company that wanted to get rid of someone just for being a not very nice person to work with. Obviously that was not an excuse, so they moved their desk by the drafty door that stays open, they gave her the crap admin work when it needed to be done among other things. She eventually chose to leave.

Vonhelmet · 24 Nov 2017 at 12:10

Avenged7Fold said:
Point he makes is that, they will still be able to discriminate without getting caught. If you think you were getting asked to do the crap jobs before, then they may try and prove you wrong. I worked for a company that wanted to get rid of someone just for being a not very nice person to work with. Obviously that was not an excuse, so they moved their desk by the drafty door that stays open, they gave her the crap admin work when it needed to be done among other things. She eventually chose to leave.

Which is constructive dismissal... but very hard to make a case for, and then you’ve got the stigma of being a “troublemaker”.

ganesh · 25 Nov 2017 at 08:50

If the employer has been negligent then I wouldn’t have given it this much thought, I would absolutely claim.
Sometimes the only way a company learns is if it costs them money.

Avenged7Fold · 25 Nov 2017 at 12:00

ganesh said:
If the employer has been negligent then I wouldn’t have given it this much thought, I would absolutely claim.
Sometimes the only way a company learns is if it costs them money.

The OP said that he did not refuse the job despite thinking it was dangerous, was qualified to do it and made no mention that he didn't have the proper equipment. It would not surprise me if the business argued that the negligence lies with the OP

Quartz · 25 Nov 2017 at 12:41

He also indicated there was a significant element of 'do this or your fired / on a disciplinary'.

Greebo · 25 Nov 2017 at 12:50

RaohNS said:
A woman whom I used to work last week was awarded over £13,000.

She tripped over a box in a hallway, fell over bumped her knee that then swelled up. She was off work with it for the rest of the week.

A friends sister was involved in a serious car crash 2years ago resulting in multiple operations (caused by a ******** driving too fast and hitting the stationary vehicle at around 60 in a 30). He had to pay a £60 fine meanwhile despite all her injuries (multiple breaks, MH and general pains etc) the insurer has so far only coughed up £7,000 or so but has been out of work since then (note she was due to start a £30k a year job at the time)

Justice is apparently not just blind but stupid

Agreed there is no consistency. We had a bloke at my last work spill some oil and didn’t use the grit about to metres away to clean it up. He kept working and then slipped on it and hurt his elbow. He was off work for 8 days and put a claim in and got £1500. Unless we are prepared to have one person stand to watch every person working then employers are easy targets.

On the other hand, an employee who got buried for over an hour under caustic which slowly ate his flesh away, who then needed a year off work, multi skin graphs, psychiatric treatment, can never sun bath again and can never do his job again in work with hazardous chemicals only got £300,000. He should have got £3m at least IMO. He was only 30.

SexyGreyFox · 25 Nov 2017 at 13:34

red eye said:
I did my own risk assessments and came to the conclusion that the way I used the equipment available was the safest without refusing to do the job.

Oh dear.
I work in the Legal Department of a Trust and you'd be on a hiding to nothing if you said that.
Also take no notice of people saying how much their mates got, if there's one thing I've learned from this job and when I was a Union man on a factory, people like to add a zero on the end.

In fact Greebo's post above mine sounds correct for the two cases he's talked about.

Avenged7Fold · 25 Nov 2017 at 13:40

Quartz said:
He also indicated there was a significant element of 'do this or your fired / on a disciplinary'.

He was never told he would get a disciplinary or be fired for refusing. Unless the employer stated so or has a habit of doing this, it is nothing more than a 'what if'. You cant hold a business responsible for something you think they might have done if things played out differently.