Financial Times Q&A on injuries at work

05/06/2010

By Alex Drake, Associate in Personal Injury. Featured in The Financial Times.

Q) I run a construction company based in London and my firm supplies contractors to major public works. One of our contractors recently suffered a serious injury at work and the overall contractor is now subject to a health and safety investigation. However, the general contractor has made a formal complaint that our staff weren’t trained correctly and that we may now be liable. What is my legal position?

A) There are two issues here: (a) whether your company is liable to pay damages for personal injury and (b) whether the Health and Safety Executive will prosecute.

The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 sets out employer's duties to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees, so far as is reasonably practicable. This applies even where employees are working for another contractor. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 make more explicit what employers are required to do (regulation 13 dealing with training) and more specific regulations cover different work activities such as construction sites, working at height and manual handling etc.

Ensuring employees are properly trained is a fundamental duty of care owed by employers to employees, and failure to do so potentially exposes the employer to criminal prosecution under health & safety law, as well as giving rise to liability through breach of statutory duties and in negligence when a personal injury claim is considered.

The law in this area complex and each case is fact specific. If you have not already done so, I recommend that you inform your insurers of the incident, seek independent legal advice from a specialist and revisit your company's training and risk assessment procedures.