Claim against previous employer, blaming me for 25%

StevenB12

Morning all,

Apologies if wrong section!

Long story short I have a claim in against my previous employer as I broke my wrist during work, whilst removing a road drill. 

I was offered no time off, still expected to drive illegally with a cast etc. Unfortunately it was a bad break and suffered some tendon damage as well. 

My previous employer are stating that 25% of the incident was my fault as I shouldn't have been doing manual labour as a non working manager, however my contract never stated non working having checked it several times, and they also stated I shouldn't of been helping out a colleague. 

I've sent a copy of my old contract off to the solicitor to show the non working element being missing, should this be enough? 

Thanks 

DullGreyGuy

Presumably they are saying this is contributory negligence? 

I wouldn't expect it to be a contractual matter but one of company policy that you shouldn't do heavy lifting etc without the appropriate training and PPE etc. Were you instructed by someone to remove the road drill or were you mucking in of your own accord as the job was late or something? 

Your doctor is the one that determines if you are fit to work and drive. A leg cast is an automatic no driving, an arm cast is more variable and clearly worse if the left arm (assuming a normal right hand drive vehicle). If the doc say you can work/drive then its up to you to take holiday if you feel you cannot despite what the doc says. 

Undervalued

StevenB12 said:

Morning all,

Apologies if wrong section!

Long story short I have a claim in against my previous employer as I broke my wrist during work, whilst removing a road drill. 

I was offered no time off, still expected to drive illegally with a cast etc. Unfortunately it was a bad break and suffered some tendon damage as well. 

My previous employer are stating that 25% of the incident was my fault as I shouldn't have been doing manual labour as a non working manager, however my contract never stated non working having checked it several times, and they also stated I shouldn't of been helping out a colleague. 

I've sent a copy of my old contract off to the solicitor to show the non working element being missing, should this be enough? 

Thanks 

Did you have a doctor's fit note (i.e sick note) advising that you were either unfit for work or only able to do certain light duties? If the company can't or won't make the light duties adjustments the doctor suggests (their choice) then they must treat you as off sick.

StevenB12

Undervalued said:

StevenB12 said:

Morning all,

Apologies if wrong section!

Long story short I have a claim in against my previous employer as I broke my wrist during work, whilst removing a road drill. 

I was offered no time off, still expected to drive illegally with a cast etc. Unfortunately it was a bad break and suffered some tendon damage as well. 

My previous employer are stating that 25% of the incident was my fault as I shouldn't have been doing manual labour as a non working manager, however my contract never stated non working having checked it several times, and they also stated I shouldn't of been helping out a colleague. 

I've sent a copy of my old contract off to the solicitor to show the non working element being missing, should this be enough? 

Thanks 

Did you have a doctor's fit note (i.e sick note) advising that you were either unfit for work or only able to do certain light duties? If the company can't or won't make the light duties adjustments the doctor suggests (their choice) then they must treat you as off sick.

No,

Didn't go to the doctors as went straight to hospital, so from Thursday-Sunday was x-rays and then cast fitted before the Monday. I sent off copies of the hospitals assessment saying it was suggested I undertake light duties etc for the foreseeable until the cast came off. This was shown to the director and health and safety manager, but nothing came of it. 

Exodi

Is it of any relevance whether your contract states what you shouldn't have been doing?

I work as a sales director and I couldn't imagine that if I decided to wander down to production without any training and sawed my hand off with a bandsaw or put a hole in my finger with a hand press, I'd have much of a leg to stand on by waving my contract round asking "show me where it states that I shouldn't use a bandsaw or a hand press?".

It's somewhat incredulous to think that you believed your position was a 'manual labour' role (prefer that over working, as it implies managers don't do any work!) and your employer believed your position was a 'non-manual labour' role. Did you have any training for the equipment?

With that said, they clearly accept a level of responsibility, as they're only pushing for you to accept 25% liability. From how you've described it, I'm surprised they've accepted any liability, but I'm sure there's a lot more to this story.

StevenB12

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably they are saying this is contributory negligence? 

I wouldn't expect it to be a contractual matter but one of company policy that you shouldn't do heavy lifting etc without the appropriate training and PPE etc. Were you instructed by someone to remove the road drill or were you mucking in of your own accord as the job was late or something? 

Your doctor is the one that determines if you are fit to work and drive. A leg cast is an automatic no driving, an arm cast is more variable and clearly worse if the left arm (assuming a normal right hand drive vehicle). If the doc say you can work/drive then its up to you to take holiday if you feel you cannot despite what the doc says. 

Wearing the cast voided insurance both on my own vehicle and on the company vehicle (checked with my own insurance and with company fleet manager) was unable to turn steering wheel comfortably basically. 

I was trained and wearing correct PPE as this was my regular role before management really, and it was stated that I was a none working manager, in terms really it suited then for me to help out when they needed it, but it didn't suit after the accident basically. 

StevenB12

Exodi said:

Is it of any relevance whether your contract states what you shouldn't have been doing?

I work as a sales director and I couldn't imagine that if I decided to wander down to production without any training and sawed my hand off with a bandsaw or put a hole in my finger with a hand press, I'd have much of a leg to stand on by waving my contract round asking "show me where it states that I shouldn't use a bandsaw or a hand press?".

It's somewhat incredulous to think that you believed your position was a 'manual labour' role (prefer that over working, as it implies managers don't do any work!) and your employer believed your position was a 'non-manual labour' role. Did you have any training for the equipment?

With that said, they clearly accept a level of responsibility, as they're only pushing for you to accept 25% liability. From how you've described it, I'm surprised they've accepted any liability, but I'm sure there's a lot more to this story.

15 years of doing the role would suggest I'm qualified enough I would assume..., your example of you walking down a production line whilst in a sales environment is a little bit different than having 15 years experience in the same role manually, whilst also supervising said work. As in my other answer, they are more than happy for managers etc to work if it gets the job moving, until they aren't happy. This is why it's not stated in your contract that you're in a non working position, until something goes wrong and then it's a case of "you shouldn't have been hands on" 

LightFlare

StevenB12 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably they are saying this is contributory negligence? 

I wouldn't expect it to be a contractual matter but one of company policy that you shouldn't do heavy lifting etc without the appropriate training and PPE etc. Were you instructed by someone to remove the road drill or were you mucking in of your own accord as the job was late or something? 

Your doctor is the one that determines if you are fit to work and drive. A leg cast is an automatic no driving, an arm cast is more variable and clearly worse if the left arm (assuming a normal right hand drive vehicle). If the doc say you can work/drive then its up to you to take holiday if you feel you cannot despite what the doc says. 

Wearing the cast voided insurance both on my own vehicle and on the company vehicle (checked with my own insurance and with company fleet manager) was unable to turn steering wheel comfortably basically. 

I was trained and wearing correct PPE as this was my regular role before management really, and it was stated that I was a none working manager, in terms really it suited then for me to help out when they needed it, but it didn't suit after the accident basically. 

Surprised they are accepting any liability if you are deemed to be trained and were using the correct gear in the correct manner

Marcon

StevenB12 said:

Morning all,

Apologies if wrong section!

Long story short I have a claim in against my previous employer as I broke my wrist during work, whilst removing a road drill. 

I was offered no time off, still expected to drive illegally with a cast etc. Unfortunately it was a bad break and suffered some tendon damage as well. 

My previous employer are stating that 25% of the incident was my fault as I shouldn't have been doing manual labour as a non working manager, however my contract never stated non working having checked it several times, and they also stated I shouldn't of been helping out a colleague. 

I've sent a copy of my old contract off to the solicitor to show the non working element being missing, should this be enough? 

Thanks 

The best person (and probably the only one) to answer that is your solicitor. You can't rely on a site like this where people have only a scant outline of what happened - and in any case, many of the responses are just personal opinions and comments.

DullGreyGuy

StevenB12 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Presumably they are saying this is contributory negligence? 

I wouldn't expect it to be a contractual matter but one of company policy that you shouldn't do heavy lifting etc without the appropriate training and PPE etc. Were you instructed by someone to remove the road drill or were you mucking in of your own accord as the job was late or something? 

Your doctor is the one that determines if you are fit to work and drive. A leg cast is an automatic no driving, an arm cast is more variable and clearly worse if the left arm (assuming a normal right hand drive vehicle). If the doc say you can work/drive then its up to you to take holiday if you feel you cannot despite what the doc says. 

Wearing the cast voided insurance both on my own vehicle and on the company vehicle (checked with my own insurance and with company fleet manager) was unable to turn steering wheel comfortably basically. 

I was trained and wearing correct PPE as this was my regular role before management really, and it was stated that I was a none working manager, in terms really it suited then for me to help out when they needed it, but it didn't suit after the accident basically. 

Having worked in insurance for over 20 years would love to know which clause in the policy they were reliant on when they claimed it invalidated your insurance. Most do have a clause about non-declaration of DVLA declarable conditions but a broken arm isn't declarable unless it's going to stop you driving for over 3 months and the majority of arm/wrist breaks dont. 

"It suiting their purpose" doesn't answer the question of why you did what you did on this occasion? Was it your own decision or did your manager explicitly or generally instruct you to? 

I've no idea of the rules in your line of work but certainly in mine things like manual handling isnt a one time training event but something you have to repeat every 6-12 months. If you go beyond the last refresher date you arent supposed to do anything similar until you've completed and passed the refresher. 

At the end of the day you mentioned you are using solicitors to make your claim. They are the ones with access to all the detailed information and are best placed to determine if they think the contributory negligence is reasonable or not. 

sheramber

You haven’t said how the accident happened.Thay may be pertinent to their decision that you were partly to blame.