A Guide To Explaining Accident At Work Claims And Your Employer’s Responsibility

By Stephen Hudson. Last Updated 1st August 2024. This is our guide on employers’ responsibilities after an accident at work. You will need to know what your employer is responsible for in order to establish whether or not your injury can be blamed on them.

Accidents at work can affect us physically through injury, mentally through psychological illness such as anxiety and depression and financially due to loss of earnings if you are unable to work. People often need to make a claim against their employer if they do not receive enough financial support from sick pay, or if their sick pay runs out.

Some people such as those who are self-employed are not even entitled to sick pay. The Health and Safety Executive offer a lot of useful information about employers’ responsibilities and we have included helpful links here for your information.

To learn more about your employers’ responsibilities after an accident at work, why not check out our video below:

In this guide, we take you through the information you need to know about accident at work employer’s liability claims as well as looking at what types of payout you could receive. If you have further queries after reading this guide, or you’re looking for help with starting a claim, then you can contact our team by calling 0800 073 8804. Or you can reach us online using either our claim online form or the live chat function.

Select a section

1. Was My Employer Responsible For My Accident And Can I Claim?
2. What Are Your Employer’s Responsibilities In the Workplace?
3. Employer’s Responsibilities Following An Accident At Work?
4. How To Claim For A Work Accident Against My Employer?
5. Accidents At Work Compensation Examples
6. No Win No Fee Solicitors For Accidents At Work

Was My Employer Responsible For My Accident And Can I Claim?

You may be wondering how you can establish employer responsibility for your accident, and whether or not you can make a claim. The duty of your employer, legally known as a duty of care, is set out by the Health and Safety etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA).

All employees are owed a duty of care by their employer. Per their duty of care, your employer must take reasonable steps to ensure your safety while working and in the workplace. If they fail to fulfil this duty, and you are injured as a result, this is known as employer negligence. In order to make an accident at work claim, you must be able to establish employer negligence.

For example, if your employer knowingly provided you with a faulty hard hat, and this caused you to become injured, then you may be able to make a compensation claim.

What Are Your Employer’s Responsibilities In the Workplace?

The exact responsibilities an employer will need to carry out to fulfil their duty of care will depend on the type of workplace they run and what duties employees have. Generally, employers will need to carry out the following as part of their duty of care:

• Identify any hazards that do exist and take action to address them when found.
• Ensure that any heavy machinery or other equipment used is safe and functional and employees using them are properly trained.
• Provide adequate first aid facilities within the workplace.
• Provide sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) in good condition for occasions when it is needed.
• Ensure that temperature, lighting, ventilation, toilet, washing and rest facilities all meet health and safety requirements.
• Prevent unintended and dangerous exposure to substances that are harmful to people’s health.
• Provide adequate training for manual handling tasks to employees expected to carry them out.

Please read on or contact our team of advisors today to learn more about claiming compensation for an accident at work from an employer or the responsibility an employer has to report an accident at work if one happens.

Employer’s Responsibilities Following An Accident At Work

Following an accident at work, your employer’s responsibilities may include ensuring the incident is recorded in the accident log book and they might need to report it to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE is the national workplace health and safety regulator in Britain.  

If your workplace has 10 or more employees, an accident book is required by law. If the incident resulted in more than three days off work, your employer must ensure that it is recorded. A report in the accident log book can be useful evidence if you decide to make an accident at work claim. 

As part of your employer’s responsibilities, they must report certain incidents to the HSE under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). These include work-related fatalities, specified injuries to workers, incidents that result in over seven days of absence, non-fatal accidents to members of the public that result in immediate transfer to the hospital for treatment, occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences or near misses.

If you have any questions about what should be reported or if you would like to get started on a claim, contact one of our advisors.

How To Claim For A Work Accident Against My Employer

As we discussed above, your employer owes you a duty of care at work. Per their employer duties, they must take reasonable steps to ensure your safety whilst you are performing work-related tasks and in the workplace. If you can prove negligence occurred, you might be able to make a personal injury claim.

Collecting sufficient evidence could help support your accident at work claim. Some examples of the evidence you could collect include:

• A completed report in the accident book if your workplace has one on-site.
• The contact information of anyone who witnessed the incident so they can give a statement later on.
• Accident footage, such as from CCTV.
• Photographs of the accident.
• A copy of your medical records stating the type of injury you suffered and any treatment you needed.

Time Limits

If you would like to make an accident at work compensation claim, you must initiate the claims process within the time limit. This is generally three years from the date you sustained injuries. The personal injury claims time limit is set by the Limitation Act 1980.

However, the legislation allows for some exceptions in certain circumstances. These include:

• If the injured person is under 18 at the time of the accident. For these parties, the limitation period is paused until their 18th birthday. However, a court-appointed litigation friend can bring forward a compensation claim on their behalf at any point during this limitation pause. If a litigation friend has not started the claims process for them by the time they turn 18, they will have three years from their 18th birthday to file a claim.
• Injured persons without the mental capacity to manage their own work injury claim. An indefinite suspension is applied to the time limit in these cases. This will last for as long as the party is without the required capacity to manage a claim. A litigation friend can file a personal injury claim for them at any point during this suspension. However, if the injured person recovers the mental capacity needed to manage a compensation claim, then they will have three years from the date they regained this capacity to start one.

If you have any questions about limitation or would like to further discuss your accident at work and employer responsibility following it, please speak to a member of our advisory team.

Accidents At Work Compensation Examples

In addition to asking what your employers’ responsibilities are after an accident at work, you may have questions about how much compensation you could receive if you have valid grounds to claim for work accident injuries.

Compensation for an accident at work can include general damages and special damages. General damages compensate you for the pain and suffering caused by your accident at work.

Those valuing an accident at work claim may consult the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). It contains guideline compensation brackets for many different types of injuries, including many that could be caused by a work accident. The table below contains some of the figures from the JCG. These can be viewed as a guide only. Additionally, we’ve provided a figure in the top row to show how you could be compensated for more than one severe injury and related expenses in the same claim. This figure was not taken from the JCG.

Special damages may also be included as part of your work accident compensation to cover for financial losses or expenses related to your injuries. Examples can include:

• The cost of certain treatments or medications that are part of your recovery.
• Loss of earnings that have occurred because you’ve needed to take unpaid time off work to recover from your injuries.
• The cost of home care or other aids needed to allow you to complete day-to-day activities.

Evidence is needed to claim special damages as part of your accident at work compensation. This could include documents like receipts, bank statements or wage slips.

Want to learn more about how much compensation you could receive for a work accident that occurred when the duty of care your employer owed you was breached? You can contact our team of advisors to ask them questions for free today.

No Win No Fee Solicitors For Accidents At Work

Employers’ legal responsibilities include taking all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees whilst performing work-related activities.

Should they neglect their employer duty of care, and you are injured as a result, you might be eligible to make an accident at work claim. If you decide to claim because a breach in the workplace duty of care caused your injuries, you may wish to hire a No Win No Fee solicitor to handle your case. Their representation could be funded by the terms of a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).

This means that you generally won’t have to pay upfront for your solicitor’s services. If it is determined that a breach in the employer duty of care caused you to suffer and you are awarded compensation, a legally limited success fee will be taken from your award. However, when a claim funded this way isn’t successful, the solicitor typically won’t charge for their services.

Our advisors can discuss your potential claim if you’ve been injured in a workplace accident. If it seems that your claim is eligible, you could be passed on to our solicitors. To get in touch:

• Contact us online
• Call 0800 073 8804
• Use the live chat

Thank you for reading our guide on employers’ responsibilities for an accident at work.