In the world of work, a lot of discrimination still exists. There’s sexual harassment, gender-based wage disparity and fewer women in executive positions. Slowly, however, the scales are balancing.
But there’s one work fate that no amount of equality can help – accidents in the workplace. Every year, thousands of workers (male and female) fall foul of slips, trips and falls, and it’s putting them out of pocket for months while they recuperate. Indeed, more than 78,000 injuries occurred in 2013 in the UK.
However, health and safety and discrimination have one important factor in common – the buck has to stop with the employer. Even if you’re friendly with your boss, you can’t accept their shirking of health and safety legislation. Instead, pick up the phone to a personal injury claim solicitor for sound advice on your legal situation.
Why would you want to make a claim? Well, here are just a few reasons.
Cover your wages
If you have a particularly nasty accident, chances are you’ll be out of action for a few months, weeks or maybe even years while you recover. That’s a lot of dough to forfeit.
Making a claim can, at the very least, cover the cost of lost wages and maybe even leave you with the freedom for a few luxuries while you rest up.
Improve a workplace
While most people make claims primarily for money, few consider the important knock-on effect a court case can have on the way a workplace operates.
Sometimes you have to take an employer to task. They could be cigar-toting, cackling maniacs, or have halo-ringlets for hair and cover their employees in rose petals upon starting a shift. Either way, they either don’t know or don’t care about health and safety legislation.
File a claim, and suddenly that poor safety record will be exposed like a front-page news splash. In turn, fingers crossed, your employer will have to ensure everything in your workplace is ship-shape – meaning another accident won’t befall anyone else.
Gain closure
If you’ve had an accident in your workplace and blame your boss for it, then that bad blood will snowball until you hold nothing but a deep, repressed, very real spite towards them.
Although there will probably be tensions between your employer and yourself during a claim (and that water might never float under the bridge again), it does bring a certain sense of closure to the situation.
The beauty of the courts system is that, in most cases, it allows for the uncovering of truth and justice. So, file a claim to know who’s really at fault for an accident.