employer admits industrial injury caim.......

dori2o

....but has told the solicitor any settlement comes with one specific condition.

The employer has said my friend (whom I posting on behalf of) must agree to leave his employment. The employer will settle the injury claim and also pay him a settlement of 6 months salary.

He's been there just short for 2 years.

In October last year he had an accident at work, a machine he was working on crushed his legs very badly. For 2 months he was in hospital and he had no feeling in his legs for a further 5-6 weeks. He has managed to get back to work but he now uses crutches and had little movment in his legs and his employer has found him alternative duties. His condition is still quite bad and he says the doctors/physios think it could be 4-5 years of rehab and other ops before there is any possibility he will be fit enough to walk somewhat normally, and maybe never without the use of a walking aid.

The employer has said they cannot sustain the level of sickness absence he is likely to have over the next 5 years. and so they want him to agree to effectively resign his post.

As he isn't entitled to any form of redundancy they propose a sort of compromise agreement to allow him to leave their employment with 6 months pay.

Their argument seems to be that he would be able to live off his compensation for a few years.

I don't think he should take it, I think the employer has a cheek asking, but what would you do?

Denning.

This is an insurance issue, the fact the company is trying to settle this under the table says a lot

Scrootum

What do you mean by "admits liability"?

geri1965_2

Let me get this straight. The employer is dealing with this, not their insurers?

Does your friend have a solicitor? If not, why not?

This is a very serious injury and he must, I repeat, MUST seek legal advice if he has not already done so.

marybelle01

geri1965 wrote: »

Let me get this straight. The employer is dealing with this, not their insurers?

Does your friend have a solicitor? If not, why not?

This is a very serious injury and he must, I repeat, MUST seek legal advice if he has not already done so.

This ^^^^^^^^

This is not an admission of liability, it is a pay off. A potentially lifelong injury, if there is liability, amounts to a lot more than 6 months wages. I got "five months wages" for a minor car crash that caused me three weeks sickness!

dori2o

To confirm a few points.

My friend does have a solicitor, the employer wrote to the solicitor and my friend received a letter from the solicitior telling him what had been said and asking him to call to make an appointment to discuss the matter in person.

The employer has admitted that the liability for the accident falls onto them, i.e. that it is their fault. This simply means they wish to settle the mater without the need to go through the courts, It is a common arrangement that the majority of employers do in industrial injury claims. It saves bad publicity and huge costs.

The employer has offered to settle the injury claim and I assume the solicitor will discuss with them the level of compensations due.

The employer wants my friend to leave with 6 months pay for doing so. This is in addition to any financial compensation they pay out for the accident.

I'm assuming that when my friend meets the solicitor he will tell my friend to not accept the 'offer'. I certainly wouldn't.

spacey2012

My experience, from what I have just read would be a settlement of not less than £600,000 interim with 5 year review for final settlement .
If it beats that, take it.
If not, tell the solicitor if he thinks the derisory offer is worth taking, you will be getting a new solicitor.
Just opinion.

agrinnall

spacey2012 wrote: »

My experience, from what I have just read would be a settlement of not less than £600,000 interim with 5 year review for final settlement .
If it beats that, take it.
If not, tell the solicitor if he thinks the derisory offer is worth taking, you will be getting a new solicitor.
Just opinion.

I think the chance that the person is on a salary of over £1.2 million is pretty slim!

Enterprise_1701C

I personally think that he would have difficulty finding another job in the meantime, and even more difficulty finding a job after 4/5 years not working.

6 Months salary is not a lot to live off for several years, unless he was highly paid.

Was your friend doing something stupid at the time of the accident? In which case he should perhaps ask for 18 months salary as a pay off.

If he was not then his employers have basically caused him several years worth of problems and should pay him several years worth of salary either with or without employing him. They should also be paying him compensation.

This is not from a legal point of view but from a moral one.

comeandgo

Is the employer being taken to court by Health & Safety people? I know my ex was in an industrial accident, employer at fault and they were hauled over the coals by the court and news papers so no chance of keeping it quiet.

moneyistooshorttomention

Whatever level settlement he gets that won't avail him much when he goes to claim unemployment benefit.

The DWP would only allow him to have £6,000 savings maximum (and they count everything in the bank balance as being savings, even the money left in there to live on for the rest of the month). Above that level, they would start deducting from the unemployment benefit level they would give him.

In this day and age he won't find it at all easy to get another job with that level of disability.

Bear in mind that many compensation claims can take years to finish off.