Worker safety is a growing concern in many countries all over the world. Many times a work accident compensation claim is made through a government or government sponsored/administered insurance pool, funded by premiums paid by employers. Claims are handled in many different ways across different countries, but the main goal of all of these laws is to make it easier for a worker who is hurt on the job to get compensated for their injury.
Many laws are passed every year to try and increase safety at work. In the United States, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Heath Administration) was created in 1971 to protect workers from harm on the job.
In all the work accident compensation laws you will see emphasis on:
- Employees using suitable and safe equipment for the job they are doing.
- Proper training of employees for the job they are doing.
- An effort to keep workplace hazards to a minimum.
Worker safety can have a dramatic affect on the company’s financial situation as well as the health of the economy as a whole. If a company has a large loss because of a lapse of safety at a plant or job site, it could cause a company into bankruptcy if the accident is litigated in a class action or something similar and the company is found to be negligent.
The vast majority of employers work very hard at providing a safe environment for employees to perform their work duties but there are still many work related injures from slip and fall accidents or machinery accidents all the way to carpal tunnel syndrome.
An employer’s best practices to help avoid injury is to provide:
- A safe place to work including ventilation if chemicals are used, proper heating, floors that won’t cause tripping or falls because of moisture or other irregularities or any other dangers that the specific type of work entails.
- Complete training of all employees as such that they are not a danger to themselves or their fellow employees.
- Proper management supervision and safe equipment and materials to be used in conjunction with the two points above.
If you have been involved in a work accident do the following as soon as you are able:
- If you are unable at the scene, ask a friend to take photos of the accident scene even if they are taken on a cell phone camera. Just so they can be preserved and used later used if needed.
- The workers compensation insurance company will want you to see their doctor to try and avoid any accident fraud, which is understandable. But, as soon as possible see your own doctor to confirm the diagnosis of the insurance carrier’s doctor.
- Make sure that the incident is recorded in the companies accident record book as required by many countries laws.
- Report any after affects both physical and mental that you experience to your employer and ask that they be made note of in the accidents reports.
Employee safety is in the best interest of the employer to have productive and healthy employees and also in the best interest of the employees to remain healthy and productive. The employer has less expense with less employee accidents and employees have less time off work injured.
This article is not meant as medical, legal or insurance advice, it is only for informational purposes. Please consult with a medical,legal or insurance professional for the appropriate advice.