Who Is Responsible for Health and Safety in the Workplace? Your Rights Explained
Confused about workplace safety responsibilities? Learn who is responsible, your legal rights, and when you may be entitled to claim compensation.
Your employer has a duty of care to you to ensure that you are protected from any potential injuries. This includes all accidents at work but also, in certain circumstances deliberate acts of violence, such as an attack and/or assault from a co-worker, customer or patient.
If your employer has failed to protect you, resulting in an assault or attack, then you may be able to make a claim for compensation against your employer’s insurance policy.
You can be confident that when instructing us to manage your assault at work claim, our solicitors will act in a calm, professional manner; returning your phone calls and emails promptly and always keeping you up to date with how your case is progressing.
We offer a no win, no fee arrangement for personal injury claims. This means that if we are unsuccessful in winning compensation for you, you will not pay us any legal fees.
Call: 01429 225200The Government Agency responsible for health and safety is the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE says that work-related violence is:
“Any incident in which a person is abused, threatened, or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. This can include verbal abuse or threats as well as physical attacks. These pages explain what HSE is doing to address the issue of work-related violence and provide access to a range of information.”
For example, if you are a nurse and a violent patient hits you, you may be a victim of a workplace assault.
Your employer is responsible for ensuring your safety at work. If they have not taken appropriate action to do so, they may be found to have acted negligently and so be responsible for your injury. Employers are responsible for the actions of other employees, including criminal actions. Therefore, if for example, another employee assaults you at work, your employer will be liable to compensate you for any injury suffered.
If you work in a job that carries a high risk of an assault occurring, for example in a nursing home for dementia patients or an A&E department, your employer must assess the risks to their employees and have policies and procedures in place to adequately protect against them.
If you are successful in your claim, you will be awarded damages for your pain, suffering and loss of amenity which will be assessed and based upon the medical evidence that is obtained in your case. You can also claim special damages, and these are based upon your out-of-pocket expenses.
You may also be able to claim compensation under The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme and we will guide you through the application process.
To find out more about how Tilly Bailey & Irvine Law Firm can advise you on an Assault at Work and Employee Negligence compensation claim, please talk to one of our solicitors.
Call: 01429 225200
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