Written by Prime Minister David Cameron recently announced the government were looking to clamp down on workplace injury claims and the compensation culture. *
He said “and there is something else we are doing: waging war against the excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses.”
Politics aside, this could prove to be bad news for the many people who suffer illness, accident and injury as a direct result of employer negligence in the UK every year.
Despite talking of the “excessive health and safety culture”, there are still many unscrupulous firms operating in the UK who put their employees in risky or dangerous situations every day of their working lives.
Highly spurious and ridiculous injury compensation claims tend to make the news more than the legitimate ones, and while any crackdown on false claims would be welcomed by most, it’s feared that legitimate claims may suffer too.
Below is a look at how this announcement could affect valid workplace injury claims.
• People may become reluctant to make a claim
If the process of making valid workplace injury claims becomes harder, it may put people off trying to pursue a compensation award.
In cases where an employer has clearly been negligent, this could be a real ‘kick in the teeth’ for an employee who would understandably feel aggrieved. If an employee is forced to take time off work for an accident that was their employers’ fault without any recompense, this could have a damaging effect on their morale and state of mind when they return to work.
• Employers could get complacent when it comes to health and safety
There are already many companies in the UK that don’t take their duty of care to employees as seriously as they should. If workplace injury claims become harder to pursue, more businesses could see this as an opportunity to become complacent and save money on health and safety measures.
Unfortunately, people die at work every year in the UK, so if more employers were to become complacent, accident rates and deaths may rise.
• Employees could miss out financially
In lots of workplace injury claims, employees are forced to seek compensation because they’re unable to work for long periods. In many cases, their employers won’t pay them for the duration of their time off, especially if it runs into months or even years in extreme cases.
The compensation awarded via successful workplace injury claims is a valuable lifeline for many who’ve had an accident at work that wasn’t their fault.
If it becomes harder to win workplace injury claims, many employees may be forced to try and get by without any salary or compensation to help them pay the bills while they recover.
www.injurylawyers4u.co.uk is one of the UK’s leading specialists in dealing with workplace injury claims and accident compensation. Call them now on 0845 345 4444 if you’d like to discuss making a claim.
