For the vast majority of us, our job takes up a large chunk of our life. If you have a full time job, the chances are that you work around 40 hours a week. Considering that we spend a lot of the rest of the time asleep, it can feel like work takes up every waking moment of our time. Taking the average life expectancy into account, the average worker in the UK will spend a whopping 128 months at work.
With so much time spent at your job, it is important that you are kept safe and secure so you can work to the best of your ability. This means you should be able to carry out the tasks required of you without risk of injury or threat of illness. Of course, accidents can happen wherever you are, regardless of how many safety precautions are in place.
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 171 people were killed at work in the UK between 2010 and 2011. While this is at the extreme end of the scale, work injuries are not as uncommon as you might think. The HSE also found that more than 115,000 reported injuries were sustained by people at work over the same period. Having an accident or getting injured is never a nice experience but when it occurs at work there are certain things you should do afterwards. So what should you do if you’re injured at work?
Seek medical attention
This may seem obvious but seeking medical attention is something not everyone will immediately do if they are injured at work. If your job is high pressured, it can be tempting to complete the task at hand, or send one last email before seeking help. Some people will even wait until the end of the working day before getting medical attention.
If you have an accident at work, no matter how trivial it may appear, put medical attention at the top of your to-do list. Your employer will understand that you were not able to complete a task because of injury.
Tell your employer
More often than not, your employer will automatically know that you’ve had an injury as you may have needed the rest of the day off, or longer. However, it is still important that you record the injury in your employer’s ‘accident book’.
All employers, with the exception of very small companies, are required to keep an accident book to help them keep a record of what’s happened and prevent accidents in the future. Recording your accident will also be useful if you need time off work or want to claim compensation.
Consider making a claim
Accidents can occur any time and are often nobody’s fault, but if you think your employer is at fault you may want to make compensation claim. The best thing to do here is talk to a no win no fee lawyer to find out if you have a chance of successfully claiming compensation. If you want to make a claim, remember that you need to have had the accident in the last three years in order to be eligible.
Contact InjuryLawyers4U today for no obligation advice on your claim.
