Hurt myself at work...

jonnyd281

geri1965 wrote: »

Employers have a duty under regulation 12 (3) of the Workplace (Health Safety & Welfare) Regulations 1992 to ensure that

So far as is reasonably practicable, every floor in a workplace and the surface of every traffic route in a workplace shall be kept free from obstructions and from any article or substance which may cause a person to slip, trip or fall.

In simple terms, the pallet represented a tripping hazard and shouldn't have been there.

Yes however all Employees also have a duty under the Health and Safety Regs to ensure that they follow safe practices and don't cause a danger to themselves or others (paraphrased not quoted since I can't remember the exact wording).
As such there are three people where fault could be lain. The OP for walking over the pallet and not moving it (although this is a minor issue compared to....), the other employee for putting the pallet in a dangerous place and the Employer for not ensuring that safe practices are observed.
OP When was the last time your employer conducted H&S training?

Regards
Jon

crankydame

geri1965 wrote: »

That is no defence - those items shouldn't be there, there should be clearly defined and clear walkways.

There may be arguments of contributory negligence but primary liability will still attach to the employers for allowing tripping hazards to go unremoved.

In any event if the pallet is broken it is defective work equipment, for whcih there is strict liability.

If everyone in every business made their primary concern that of sticking to every minor detail of health and safety law the only people in jobs would be folks like you! A little common sense goes a long way and it is not possible to legislate for someone walking around with their eyes shut and not taking responsibility for their own safety. In practical terms factory environments are busy places and "things" aren't always exactly where they should be but that doesn't mean to say that everytime somebody does something stupid they should run off to a comp solicitor now does it - and in this case if the injury was that bad they would have spent the rest of the shift in A & E - they need to manup and stop being such a wimp. They could make a report out to their shift manager so that it can be considered at the next H & S review - at least something positive may have come out of it.

crankydame

rancid-a wrote: »

Hello everyone

I hurt myself at work a few nights back (Thurs 11th) I'm so annoyed about it and don't know what to do. I don't know if it's my own stupid fault.
QUOTE]
Yes it probably was IMO but a lesson well learnt. Go and get it checked out anyway and don't stand on pallets in future - cos thats not what they're for! Hope your leg gets better soon

bitsandpieces

First priority should be getting your leg checked out, anyway. Compensation payments for minor injuries don't tend to be exactly lavish in the UK - your health is much more important than what money you might get...

hundredk

geri1965 wrote: »

That is no defence - those items shouldn't be there, there should be clearly defined and clear walkways.

How do you know that they shouldn't be there as the OP didn't state this?

geri1965 wrote: »

There may be arguments of contributory negligence but primary liability will still attach to the employers for allowing tripping hazards to go unremoved.

You don't know this. Have you seen the RA and method statements? The pallet may well have been in the correct place and OP walked over it to take a shortcut.

geri1965 wrote: »

In any event if the pallet is broken it is defective work equipment, for whcih there is strict liability.

Not so. Depends on many things the OP has not stated, eg if the employer has a training and/or H&S check regime in place that requires operatives to check equipment prior to use?

Pssst

sillyvixen wrote: »

surely it is the employees responsibilty to make sure they walk around the pallet and not over it!

The HSWA makes safety and compliance a joint responsibility. As the inured party was present at the time of the injury,he is much better placed to risk assess and avoid the injury than his employer. He failed to do so therefore he is responsible for the injury which he sustained.

Where i work there are NO accidents. If you have one,there is a major enquiry and if you are found wanting,you are well on the road to disciplinary procedures.

rancid-a

Thank you all for taking time to say your thoughts, much apprechiated.

@hundredk. The other machine op on the other line did leave a pallet out for me, he does this quite often - I guess it saves him stacking it with others in the area. He usually has a few other pallets laying around too, ones which he's taking stuff off to use and then they're left empty, stuff like that.

@Pssst. The pallet didn't break because of my weight (now there's a good incentive to go on a diet), it was missing planks that make up the top and the pallet paper was hiding this defect from me. - foot went down, just couldn't stop myself. I didn't even want to use this pallet yet, I was still filling up my old one.

@Horace. Although I reported the accident late, The first aider at work entered the time of the accident at the time that it happened. Two reasons I didn't want to go A&E. 1. I twisted my ankle badly 5-6 years ago and was told to walk on it. I just didn't want it to be seen as something trivial. And 2. I'm terrified of being told something horrible I was just hoping the pain would/will go away.

@Sillyvixen. There really wasn't much room to move. And I'm not convinced walking over an empty pallet is a health hazzard, or it is?.... In the past, We've had to use pallets as stepping stones 10-12 high to stack product on a pallet which the customer wanted at a certain height.

@Geri & hundredk. The other machine op left me the pallet. But it wasn't needed yet, it was kind of being an obstruction. Wish he'd just kept the damn thing sideways instead of laying it flat. I DID take the shortcut across to the supervisor 30 feet away because I didn't want walk between empty pallets laid out too close together.
Warehouse staff are to check for pallet defects but I think the one left for me had been brought in with products on it needed for production, so we can't blame them for outside goods brought in.

nexuss

From some of the things you say health and safety would close your factory down.It seems the employer and employees need to go on a health and safety awareness course.

A/ No-one should ever walk over any object in a workplace

B/ 'Pallets as stepping stones 10-12 high' is gross negligence by employees and the employer should have put a stop to this.

C/ Employees should only move about the factory floor using the designated walkways which should be clearly marked usually with yellow lines.Pallets should not be left in these walkways and employees should not walk over them if they are left outside of these designated walkways.

Zazen999

Is it in the company procedures to have pallets left in this way? If this is common practice, has anyone ever reported it to the company and have they ever done anything about it [ie sent a memo round to tell everyone to stop doing it, and getting signed copies back saying that everyone has read it].

The employer would be on a sticky wicket if they had not done everything reasonably practicable to prevent injury. Slips, trips and falls are the most common injury at work. Anyone looking at the case would look at what happened, and at the employer's H&S record, plus any training they had done and any information that they had provided for people.

However, you would have had to have told your manager that you had the fall, when and where it happened at the time. Otherwise, how do they know it is an issue - as mentioned everyone has a duty of care to everyone else in the workplace and it falls on everyone to report incidents like this.

geri1965_2

crankydame wrote: »

If everyone in every business made their primary concern that of sticking to every minor detail of health and safety law the only people in jobs would be folks like you!

Actually you are completely wrong. I am a loss adjuster, so if everyone took health & safety as seriously as they should be, I would probably be out of a job!