Has my employer an obligation to compensate me for injuries I had due to an accident at work?
An employer must provide his employees with
- Competent co-workers
- A safe place of work
- Proper equipment which is fit for purpose.
- A safe system of work.
Your employer has a duty to you under the Health and Safety Legislation and also under Common Law to take reasonable care for your safety. The Courts in Ireland will also look at an employer’s behaviour and examine whether the employer has discharged his duty of care to his employees. The test applied by the Courts is to see if the employer did what a “reasonable and prudent employer” would have done in all the circumstances. A Court will also look at an individual employee’s experience, age and knowledge. In Ireland the onus is on the injured employee to satisfy a Court that they suffered their injuries* due to their employer not putting in place a safe workplace under the headings above.
What are the first steps I should do to take an accident at work claim*?
- Firstly, seek appropriate medical attention and follow all the advice of your medical practitioner to include your physiotherapist etc.
- Talk to your HR Department and look at your contract of employment to see what the policy of the Company is if you need to take time off work.
- Talk to your Solicitor so they can advise you of the strengths and weaknesses of your case and the sooner you do this the better because your Solicitor needs to look at all of the evidence as regards the accident which occurred at work.
You must take a claim within two years of the accident happening.
Remember that you must take a claim* for compensation if you have been injured at work within two years from the date of the accident. If you have had a back injury* caused by lifting a heavy object or you have suffered a cut or any type of injury to your body in general you only have two years from the date of that accident to take a personal injury claim*
That said your injury may be as a result of doing something over and over again over a number of years and your symptoms don’t develop overnight and in those circumstances you need to speak to your Solicitor without delay because in that case your date of injury may be when you are actually diagnosed with an illness or when you learnt that an illness was caused by a work related incident. However, the best advice is to stick to the two-year rule and seek legal advice as soon as possible.
If you have any questions our specialised Personal Injury Claims team is here to help.
You can contact Mc Cormack Solicitors on
Email: info@carolmccormacksolicitors.ie
Phone: 071 9621846
www.carolmccormacksolicitors.ie
*In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.
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The contents of these pages are provided as an information guide only. While every effort is made in preparing material for publication no responsibility is accepted by or on behalf of McCormack Solicitors for any errors, omissions or misleading statements on these pages or any site to which these pages connect.
