TRAINING & SUPERVISION CLAIMS

Inadequate Training - Work Compensation Claim

Employers are required by both UK and EU law to ensure that the workplace is safe for both employees and visitors. Inadequate training is the one of the greatest threats to heath and safety in the workplace with thousands of injuries occurring every year because of failure by employers to ensure that their employees are adequately trained or supervised.

Health & Safety- Personal Injury

Health and safety legislation requires employers to reduce the risk of personal injury in the workplace by ensuring that employees receive adequate training, instruction and supervision. To function safely in the workplace employees must be knowledgeable about hazards in the workplace, their effects and how to avoid them. The failure to provide this information or inadequate training in the workplace can lead to serious accidents for which the employer may be held liable in a compensation claim.

Risk Assessment Of Accidents

Almost all industrial processes have some risk attached and it is incumbent on employers to carry out a risk assessment which is necessary for even the most mundane operation that ostensibly seems to be relatively risk free. Employers are duty bound to ensure that any industrial process is carried out so far as is reasonably practicable in such a way as to reduce any identified risk and where manual handling is involved to mechanise the process so far as is reasonably possible. Clearly these processes will also require training and supervision if they are to be carried out safely.

Essential Subjective Training

To be considered adequate, training must be suited to the level of knowledge of the person receiving the training and cover the safety risks particular to that person’s job in terms they can understand. Some types of work require an employee to take part in a course and attain specific accreditation to perform a given task, such as a forklift operator, for what is perceived as a high risk operation. It is the duty of the employer to make sure that employees performing these specialised functions have the appropriate credentials. Personal injury compensation claims can be made if an accident occurs because an employer failed to instruct, train or supervise adequately.

Dismissing Unco-operative Employees

Employees who are given the opportunity for proper instruction or have adequate training available to them and do not cooperate with employers in implementation of safety measures or attendance at training sessions are unlikely to be successful in an injury claim. However it should be mentioned that there is also a duty on employers to dismiss those who are un-cooperative in order to protect the safety of co-workers. Those dismissed in this way would probably have no recourse to compensation from an Industrial Tribunal for unfair dismissal provided that the employer acted reasonably by giving notice and warnings unless the conduct was so serious as to justify instant summary dismissal such as very dangerous horseplay with mechanical componants including vehicles especially fork lift trucks.

No Win No Fee Compensation Claims