Preventing accidents and injury at work

I have explained in other articles how the law looks at prevention of accidents and injury at work. Some years ago lawyers acting for Claimants had to try to prove an employer should have been aware of a hazard, and should have protected its employees. The law used the benefit of hindsight to see how an accident or injury at work could have been avoided.

Much of the law is now based on regulations which impose a duty to risk assess before a task is undertaken. Prevention rather than cure seems to make sense. It is this process of risk assessment which has got a bad name by those who shout about the claims culture.

What is wrong with demanding that a job be properly assessed before asking an employee to do it? Employees are not guinea pigs testing a work process to see what might go wrong. Continue reading “Identifying risk of injury to employees – protective equipment”