Lawford Kidd's Blog

To mark this year’s European Week for Safety and Health at Work the Irish Injuries Board recently published an interesting analysis of the workplace accident claims it received in 2012, and warned businesses of the consequences of cutting corners when it comes to the health and safety of their employees.

Safety failings can be costly

The Irish Injuries Board is an independent Irish Government body that makes statutory personal injury awards in respect of motor, employer and public liability accidents.

Its most recent analysis reveals that the highest award for a work related accident during 2012 amounted to €332,143. In total, the Injuries Board settled 807 work related injury claims during the year, and awarded compensation amounting to €22 million. This was a slight decrease over the previous year, when there were 830 awards made, totalling €22.5 million in compensation.

Health and safety in the construction industry has recently come under the spotlight after a nationwide campaign by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found an alarming number of sites were failing to meet basic safety standards.

Many sites visited by the HSE

The campaign involved HSE inspectors visiting 2,607 sites across the UK where refurbishment or repair work was being carried out. They looked at whether:

• jobs that involved working at height were identified and properly planned to ensure that appropriate precautions, such as proper support of structures, are in place,
• quipment was correctly installed / assembled, inspected and maintained and used properly,
• proper monitoring and control arrangements to prevent unnecessary exposure to harmful dusts were in place,
• sites were well organised, to avoid trips and falls, walkways and stairs free from obstructions, and
• work areas were clear of unnecessary materials and waste and welfare facilities were adequate.

Safety standards found to be inadequate

During their visits, inspectors found insufficient safety standards on almost half (1,105) sites, and on 644 sites work was being carried out in such an unsafe manner than enforcement action had to be taken to protect workers. As a result, HSE inspectors were forced to serve 539 prohibition notices ordering dangerous activities to stop immediately, and 414 improvement notices requiring standards to improve.

Too many workers in the UK are continuing to suffer serious injury, or in some cases death, as a result of falls from height. This type of accident is particularly common in the construction sector, where workers on building sites are regularly expected to work several stories above the ground.

Working at Height Regulations

The inherent risks involved in working at height are obvious, and there are regulations in place that should help ensure these workers are protected as much as possible.

One of the key pieces of legislation providing this protection is the Work at Height Regulations 2005, in which Regulation 6(3) states: "Where work is carried out at height, every employer shall take suitable and sufficient measures to prevent, so far as is reasonably practicable, any person falling from a distance liable to cause personal injury."

Workers who have sustained an injury as a result of an accident at work will find it much harder to bring a successful compensation claim after Section 69 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act came into force on the 1st October 2013.

Government’s justification

The Government describes the purpose of the Act, which received Royal Assent in April of this year, as “cutting the costs of doing business in Britain, boosting consumer and business confidence and helping the private sector to create jobs.” However, from a personal injury point of view, the effect of the Act has been to switch the burden of proof for a work related injury claim from the employer to the employee.

The Government claims that such a radical switch was necessary because businesses are currently liable to pay compensation for employee injuries, even where they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent the injury from occurring. According to the Government, this has resulted in companies over complying with health and safety regulation out of a fear of being sued, and has led to them facing unnecessary costs.

Changes to the mandatory reporting system for work related injuries came into force on 1st October. The changes had been the subject of a consultation exercise that ran from August to October last year.

RIDDOR

The rules on injury reporting are contained within the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995, which place a legal requirement on employers to report and keep records of certain incidents at work, including fatal accidents or accidents that result in serious injury. Employers are also required to report diagnosed cases of certain industrial diseases, and let the authorities know if certain ‘dangerous occurrences’ or near-miss incidents take place.

By reporting these incidents, employers provide enforcing authorities such as the Health and Safety Executive with enough information to identify the risks involved and to decide whether they need to be investigated further.