Pages On: Employer Negligence

Norfolk road worker forced to leave his job after contracting HAVS

Posted: 26 April 2016

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Industrial Deafness and Disease, Workplace Injuries

A 25-year-old road worker has been forced to quit his job after contracting Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS) whilst working for Norfolk city council. Adrian Bideau contracted HAVS and Carpel Tunnel Syndrome after prolonged use of vibrating tools such as whacker plates, saws and breaker packs. It has been claimed that the council were liable due to their bonus scheme programme that encouraged staff to work more hazardously. Mr Bideau described how he now has great difficulty working outside and finds that his condition gets much worse in cold weather. Despite having decompression…

Three companies charged after four men crushed to death on building site

Posted: 31 January 2016

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries, Wrongful & Accidental Death

Following the death of four men on a building site five years ago, charges were pressed against three companies and a company director for breaches of safety regulations. The defendants, Claxton Engineering Services Ltd of Norwich, Encompass Project Management Ltd of Thetford, Hazegood Construction Ltd of Stowmarket and David Groucott, Director of Encompass Project Management Ltd were all charged under different sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974. The four who perished in the accident were Daniel Hazelton aged 30, his brother 26-year-old Thomas Hazelton, Adam Taylor, 28…

Crane hire firm fined £700,000 after employee death

Posted: 28 December 2015

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries, Wrongful & Accidental Death

Baldwins Crane Hire has been fined £700,000 after health and safety failings led to the death of one of its employees. 49-year-old Lindsay Easton, from Sowerby Bridge in Yorkshire, was killed while driving a crane at Scout Moor quarry in Lancashire. It was heard that the brakes failed on the 130-tonne vehicle while Mr Easton was driving the crane on a steep slope. He lost control of the vehicle and it crashed into an earth bank. The crash left him with such severe injuries that he subsequently died. The accident…

Nuclear submarine base warned over staff safety

Posted: 9 June 2015

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries

A naval base has been threatened with legal action over a number of safety breaches, including a worker receiving a dose of radiation. Devonport naval base is responsible for refitting Britain’s nuclear submarines, but has been found to be “below standard” for its safety procedures, according to a recent report by the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR). Last year the ONR issued the Devonport naval base with a legal warning after a worker was contaminated with radiation. According to the ONR, the dose was “very small” but did underline the…

Paralysed stage manager wins £3.7 million in compensation

Posted: 19 December 2014

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Spine & Back Injuries, Workplace Injuries

A former stage manager has been awarded £3.7 million in compensation after she was left paralysed following an accident at the Soho Theatre. Rachael Presdee was the stage manager on Headlong Theatre Company’s production of Boys in 2012 when the accident happened. It was heard that she fell through an unguarded backstage door and dropped three metres to the open stage below. The fall left her with a very severe and permanent injury to her spine, and she is now paralysed and in a wheelchair.  The compensation was granted earlier this…

Food company fined £35k for multiple workplace safety failings

Posted: 29 May 2014

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Faulty Work Equipment, Finger Injuries, Workplace Injuries

Kent-based rice processor ‘Veetee Foods’ has been fined £35,000 for safety failings for the second time this month. The firm was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) after a member of staff crushed three of their fingers in unguarded machinery. The member of staff, Khalil Ahmed, had been working on a machine whose guard had been intentionally removed, allowing staff to get too close to the moving parts. The factory on the Medway City Estate in Rochester was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay £5,492 in costs after admitting…

Majority of injured workers not compensated

Posted: 5 May 2014

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries

Despite speculation that a ‘compensation culture’ is developing in the UK, figures suggest otherwise – showing that the majority of the country’s injured workers are not compensated at all. Figures show that over 600,000 people a year report a work-related illness or injury, with 25,000 forced to give up work as a result. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers is trying to tackle the ‘myth’ that workplace accidents automatically result in big compensation claims. One personal injury lawyer said the he was frustrated by the common perception of how personal injury claims…

Workplace compensation claims dropped by 50% in last 10 years

Posted: 22 April 2014

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Industrial Deafness and Disease, Repetitive Strain Injury, Spine & Back Injuries, Workplace Injuries, Workplace Slip

A report recently released by TUC has found that compensation cases related to workplace injuries and illness have fallen by around 50% in the last decade. The figures revealed that compensation claims have fallen from 183,342 in 2002/03, to 91,115 in 2012/13. Despite there being a promising decline in cases, this could be due to the government making it increasingly difficult for workers to pursue claims of employer negligence.  The report found that around 6 out of 7 workers who are injured or made ill at work (85.7%) receive no compensation whatsoever. This…

Firm fined for 19-year-old who died from being crushed at work

Posted: 22 January 2014

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries, Wrongful & Accidental Death

A firm has been fined £75,000 after an apprentice was crushed to death while working with machinery weighing almost a tonne. 19-year-old Jason Burden from South Shields was killed while reassembling the machine on a workbench when it fell onto his torso and left leg, causing his subsequent death. Mr Burden had been working at Tyne Slipway & Engineering Co Ltd (TSECL) at South Dock in Sunderland when the 970kg (150 stone) ship tunnel thruster landed on him. The accident occurred in December 2011, with his father Trevor Burden saying: “His…

Chemical firm fined after three injured in explosion

Posted: 8 October 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries

A chemical firm based at Burscough industrial estate has been fined £150,000 after three members of their staff were severely injured in an explosion on site. Personnel Hygiene Services (PHS) Ltd were found to be breaching many health and safety procedures, following an investigation, resulting in the explosion that caused three of their staff members to sustain serious burns. The explosion occurred on the site after 150 aerosol cans went through a shredder, which were later found to have contained highly flammable substances. PHS has pleaded guilty to the health and safety…

Building company fined after death

Posted: 7 September 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Falls from Heights, Workplace Injuries, Wrongful & Accidental Death

Building company ‘Chestnut Homes’ has been fined a total of £40,000 after Justin Gillman (26) fell from scaffolding in 2010, resulting in his death. The judge described the death of the bricklayer as an “accident waiting to happen” after an HSE investigation found that the scaffolding had been built by two untrained workmen and was considered extremely dangerous. Mr. Gillman fell from the construction while pulling a trolley full of bricks. He stumbled off of the scaffolding, as no guardrail was in place, and was crushed by the trolley’s contents. Sentence is…

Builder prosecuted after putting his son at risk

Posted: 17 July 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries

A builder has been prosecuted after he took his 10-year-old son onto unsafe scaffolding when working on a property in Merseyside. The 51-year-old man – who cannot be identified – has been prosecuted with community service following the incident. The Health and Safety Executive witnessed the incident, photographed it and raised it as a case. After the passing HSE inspector witnessed the young boy on the scaffolding in February, six meters off the ground, the inspector ordered the builder to dismantle the scaffolding and then took the case to court. Magistrates ordered the…

Food company are prosecuted as worker severs fingertip

Posted: 30 May 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Faulty Work Equipment, Finger Injuries, Workplace Injuries

A mincing machine has caused unnamed worker of an Ilkeston food company to severely sever his fingertip. When trying to remove meat from the machine, at Chilled Foods Limited’s Grange Farm factory in Loscoe, the worker managed to bring his hand into contact with the machine’s still-moving blade. Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court was told earlier this month, 8 May, that the machine had been switched off yet the blade was still slowing down. As the employee was collecting produce from the end of the production line, he realised that something…

Firm admits neglecting safety after three workers injure their hands

Posted: 25 April 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Faulty Work Equipment, Finger Injuries, Hand Injuries, Workplace Injuries

A Lincolnshire firm that makes disposable paper products has been ordered to pay more than £116,000 in fines and costs after three workers suffered hand injuries using unguarded machines. One man had to have his left thumb amputated after getting it crushed in unguarded machinery on a production line on 26th July 2011. He was off work for several months but has now returned to the company to work on other duties. A month later an agency worker cut her finger on the blade of a napkin folding machine, while…

Building firm sentenced after employee falls to death

Posted: 9 April 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Falls from Heights, Workplace Injuries, Wrongful & Accidental Death

A building firm and one of its directors have been sentenced after an employee fell 15 metres to his death in an empty water storage tank in Macclesfield. Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 45-year-old from Liverpool and a colleague had started work at the farm three days earlier. They had been constructing brick manhole chambers above the circular tank, approximately 7.5 metres in diameter, which had been installed to collect flood water. An HSE investigation found they had not been given sufficient information or a risk assessment for the…

Enforcement action taken at many construction sites

Posted: 26 March 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Falls from Heights, Workplace Injuries

Nearly one in five construction sites visited across Britain have been subject to enforcement action after failing safety checks. In a month long initiative, inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) visited a total of 2363 sites where refurbishment or repair work was taking place and saw 2976 contractors. Around 631 enforcement notices were served across 433 sites for poor practices that could put workers at risk, with 451 notices ordering that work stop immediately until the situation was put right. Between 18th February and 15th March HSE inspectors…

The inherent dangers of working at height

Posted: 13 March 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Falls from Heights, Shoulder Injuries, Spine & Back Injuries, Workplace Injuries

Workers across Britain are continuing to suffer serious injury and even death as a result of employers failing to ensure they are sufficiently protected when working at height. Life-changing injuries In London a worker suffered severe injuries when he fell through a roof light at a construction site. He was employed by an interior fit-out company, and was carrying out insulation work on a property redevelopment project when he fell through the roof light and landed on the ground six metres below. He sustained life-changing injuries, including breaks to three…

Food company in court over worker's hand injury

Posted: 12 March 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Faulty Work Equipment, Finger Injuries, Workplace Injuries

A Leeds-based food company has been fined for safety failings after an agency worker had two fingers crushed by hydraulic rams in a sausage roll machine which had a broken guard. The 26-year-old worker was removing filling for pasties from a hopper on the machine when his fingers came into contact with dangerous moving parts. Two fingers on his right hand were badly injured. The middle finger has been left with no nerve sensation and his third finger, which had to be stitched back on, has only partial sensation. He…

Court fines company over worker injury

Posted: 12 February 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Finger Injuries, Workplace Injuries

A glass-making company in Leeds has been prosecuted for neglecting the safety of its workers after an employee was injured using an industrial high-pressure jet washer to clean a production line. The employee suffered a severe cut to the base of his left index finger when the lance of the 1500-bar jet washer fell from his grip. He had to undergo an operation to remove air that had been injected into the finger and to repair nerve damage. Leeds Magistrates’ Court was told that the company had not provided the…

Company fined for worker fall

Posted: 29 January 2013

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Falls from Heights, Spine & Back Injuries, Workplace Injuries

A Kent renovation company has been fined for safety failings after an unsupervised labourer fell more than four metres from a poorly constructed scaffold tower whilst stripping out a basement gym in central London. The man fractured two vertebrae and broke five ribs in the fall in April 2011. He was part of a crew of labourers working to remove ventilation ducting from a two-storey gym in the basement. A scaffold tower was erected to support the work and was being used by the worker to access ducting from a…

Employer Negligence

Posted in: Employer Negligence, Workplace Injuries

Employers must provide a safe working environment for their employees. If your employer fails to meet the required safety standard and you suffer an accident as a result of their negligence, you might be able to make a claim against them. Contact our expert personal injury lawyers today to claim the compensation you deserve. What you Should Do if You Are Involved in an Accident The Royal Society for the Protection of Accidents has reported that as many as 246,000 reportable workplace injuries occurred last year and 29.3 million working…