What Steps Should I Take When Injured At Work?

By Jo Anderson. Last Updated 22nd June 2023. On the page below, we are going to answers questions such as what steps should I take when injured at work? And, how do I go about making a claim against my employer?

We are also going to provide you with plenty of background information on the claims process, as well as explain how we could help process your claim for you.

what steps should i take when injured at work

Injured in an accident at work

It is very important to note that not all accidents that occur within the workplace or working hours will lead to a compensation claim, however, if your accident could have been prevented had the right procedures been in place and you are injured as a consequence then you may be able to make an accident at work claim due to employer negligence.

Our team of advisors are just a phone call away on 0800 073 8801. They can provide you with any extra information you need, or answer questions about the contents of this guide that needs clarifying. They can also provide you with crucial information about the personal injury claims time limit you will need to begin your claim within.

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Immediate Steps To Take After An Accident At Work

What steps should I take when injured at work? There are certain critical steps to take if you are injured at work. There are others that will help with the workplace injury response procedure for preparing to make a claim later on. These are:

  • Seek medical treatment, even if your injuries appear to be trivial.
  • Make sure you record the injury in the company accident book.
  • If you can do so safely, get photographs or video of the scene and cause of the incident.
  • If anyone witnessed the accident, get their contact details.
  • Start to document any financial costs that you incur, that were a direct result of the accident or injury.
  • Make a note of any other losses you suffered. Such as having to miss a holiday that you had already paid for.

Taking these steps will ensure that you have fulfilled all of the requirements for reporting an injury, and make sure you have all of the information and evidence you need when you make your claim.

Seek Immediate Medical Treatment

It is vital that you visit a GP, hospital or clinic to have your injuries looked at and treated. This performs several key functions, above and beyond getting you the medical treatment you need, such as:

  • It will leave a documented record of your injuries and their cause within the NHS.
  • Any tests that a doctor performs could be valuable evidence in support of your claim.
  • You may also need to undergo a medical examination to prove the extent of your injuries. Your solicitor should be able to arrange this for you.

What steps should I take when injured at work? This is the important first step you must take if you have been injured in a work-related accident.

Complete An Accident At Work Report

Part of the answer to the question, what steps should I take when injured at work? is that the UK workplace injury policy requires that all employees injured at work must file a workplace injury report. If you are injured at work, you must fill in the company accident book. However, in some cases, you may need to report the accident to another third party, such as:

  • The Health & Safety Executive.
  • The Police (in the case of road traffic accident).
  • The local council (if the accident was work-related but occurred in a public place).

These are just some examples of the third-party’s you may need to report the accident to, there may be others.

Keep Track Of Costs And Lost Income Or Benefits

If you suffer any financial losses due to the accident or injury, then you could be able to have them reimbursed as part of the settlement for your personal injury claim. For example:

  • Private medical fees.
  • Travel costs.
  • The cost of hiring a nurse.
  • Any loss of salary or wages.
  • Any loss of state benefits.
  • The cost of modifying your home or vehicle due to disability.
  • Ad-hoc losses, such as the cost of a plane flight you couldn’t make, that was not refunded.

Be sure to list these expenses, and also keep all invoices, receipts, etc. These can be used to prove your loss. Always check with your solicitor first before you pay out any expenses to ensure they will be covered by your claim.

Check What Pay You Are Entitled To If You Take Time Off

What steps should I take when injured at work to check what pay I could get? To answer the question, do I get full pay if injured at work? Then the answer is that it depends on your contract. Some employers do offer full salary/wages for at least a short period, while you recuperate. We always advise checking what is stated within your contract it should outline what you are entitled to.

If your employer doesn’t pay you, then you may be able to claim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from the Government. SSP is paid for 28 weeks, and at the time this page was published, amounts to £92.05 per week.

Find A Solicitor To Conduct Your Workplace Accident Claim

What steps should I take when injured at work to make sure I can claim compensation? If you are injured at work, the most important things you must do is get medical treatment, and follow the correct accident reporting process. Once this has been done, you can think about making a compensation claim only if your accident was caused by an employer or even employee negligence.

Once your condition has been treated, and you are sure that you have reported the incident correctly, you may consider using an accident claims solicitor to process your case if you have a valid claim.

Your solicitor will help you prepare all of the evidence you need to support your claim, work out how much you could be able to claim in compensation and handle the negotiation with your employers’ lawyer. Hopefully, the solicitor will secure you a settlement.

What Should Employers Do If An Employee Is Injured?

To answer the question, I am an employer, what to do when an employee is injured at work? The following steps could be taken;

  • Make sure the accident has been reported properly. This part is compulsory.
  • Allow the employee to get medical treatment.
  • Report the accident to RIDDOR if required (broken bones, deaths, injuries that keep an employee away from work for more than a week, workplace-related illnesses, etc).
  • Employers by law cannot treat the employee any differently for making a claim.
  • Take steps to mitigate the hazard that caused the accident.

Workplace Health & Safety is a responsibility that every employer must meet. This is a legal obligation. Failure to do so could result in stiff penalties.

When Could I Make An Accident At Work Claim?

To be eligible to make an accident at work claim, you would have to prove that your employer breached their duty of care and that this breach is what caused you to suffer your injuries.

All employers owe a duty of care towards their employees under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Per their duty of care, they must take reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety and health of all their employees while they are at work.

Some examples of how your employer could uphold their duty of care include:

  • Providing efficient health and safety training.
  • Ensuring that workplace hazards were removed where practicable or signposted if they cannot be removed.
  • Providing adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) where there is an identified need.
  • Ensuring all employees have received sufficient training for their job roles and responsibilities.

If you can prove that your employer breached their duty of care and this caused you to become injured, you may be eligible to make a personal injury claim for accident at work compensation.

You can contact our advisors today to receive free advice for your potential claim. They could also help answer any questions about what to do if you’re injured at work, or whether our solicitors could help you pursue a claim.

First Aid At Work

The main answer to the question, what steps should you take if someone gets injured? Is that the injured party should be administered First Aid. The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 clearly state that all employers must provide their workforce with primate First Aid care whilst still on the premises. This means the company must provide:

  • Suitable First Aid facilities.
  • Adequate First Aid equipment and materiel.
  • A person trained in First Aid to administer treatment.

An important distinction here is that First Aid must be available for employees. However, there is no stipulation that First Aid must be available for members of the public visiting the business premises.

As part of the process, the employer is expected to carry out regular First Aid audits, to ensure that the available treatment is comprehensive enough and that First Aid facilities are equipped to deal with specific hazards (such as dangerous chemicals) that are unique to the workplace.

Accident At Work Compensation Claims Calculator

The table we have presented below has been created based on the Judicial Guidelines used by the UK legal system, to evaluate compensation amounts.

Edit
What Type of Injury? How Severe Was It? Possible Compensation Information
Multiple Injuries Plus Special Damages Severe Up to £150,000+ Injuries, when combined, that cause serious consequences, and financial losses.
Injured arm Severe injuries (a) £96,160 to £130,930 Injuries falling short of amputations, but that cause issues that are concurrent with having lost the arm.
Injured wrist (B) £24,500 to £39,170 Permanent disability but with some useful movement remaining.
Injured finger Severe fractures to fingers (f) Up to £36,740 Severe fracture injuries
Injured ankle Moderate (c) £13,740 to £26,590 Fractures, ligamentous tears and the like which give rise to less serious disabilities.
Injured foot Moderate (f) £13,740 to £24,990 Displaced metatarsal fractures resulting in permanent deformity to injuries that will result in traumatic arthritis or the risk of future arthritis.
Injured toe Severe (c) £13,740 to £21,070 These injuries begin with simple fractures possible exacerbation of an existing condition, crush or multiple fractures to crushing injuries leading to amputation.
Injured leg Simple femur fractures (c) (ii) £9,110 to £14,080 Injuries including simple fractures to the femur bone.
Hand Injury Moderate (h) £5,720 to £13,280 Bracket starts at crush injuries, penetrating wounds, soft tissue type and deep lacerations to such injuries which, for example, have reduced the hand to about 50 per cent capacity.

Rather than add a personal injury claims calculator to this page, we urge all claimants to speak to one of our claim advisors, on the number at the end of the page, to get a personalised estimate of the value of their claim.

How Else You Could Be Compensated

If you are injured at work due to employer negligence i.e. they are failing to provide a duty of care and win your personal injury claim, you will receive a settlement that is made up of a number of different kinds of damages. We already covered financial losses in a previous section. These kinds of damages are termed special damages. The other major classification of damages you could claim are called general damages. General damages are paid for physical and psychological harm, for example:

  • The pain and trauma you suffered at the moment of the accident.
  • The shock and stress that you suffered at the moment of the accident, and whilst receiving First Aid or emergency treatment.
  • Psychological problems that were caused by the accident, such as depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
  • If your recovery will take a long time, or you have to undergo painful, intrusive or traumatic treatment during your recovery, you could be able to claim for this.
  • If your injuries will never heal fully, and leave you with some level of permanent disability.

If you talk to a member of our team on the number below, they will be able to give you an indication of the kinds of damages you might be able to claim, based on the specifics of your own case.

No Win No Fee Injured At Work Compensation Claims

In this guide, we have covered all of the immediate steps to take after an accident at work. One of the final steps you could take is finding a solicitor to process a workplace injury claim for you.

You could use a No Win No Fee solicitor to process your claim for you. In this case, you don’t pay any legal fees at all to your solicitor unless your claim is successful. That means you pay nothing to have your claim worked on, and nothing while it is processed. If you don’t actually win a compensation settlement, then you still pay nothing to your solicitor. So, you can see, that the financial risk is reduced. You do need to pay legal fees when the solicitor secures damages for you. In this case, the fee is deducted from the money that the solicitor receives for you from the defendant or their insurance, and then they will give you the rest. We can offer you such a claims service, use the number below to speak to one of our advisors and learn more about this.

Talk To Accident Claims UK

We hope that this guide has answered the question “what steps should I take when injured at work?”

If you are looking for an exceptional legal team that has more than 30 years of experience when it comes to personal injury claims we may just have the solution for you. This is where we come in. Our claims service can match you up with the right personal injury lawyer to process your claim for you. Furthermore, this would be under a No Win No Fee agreement. Talk to one of our advisors today on 0800 073 8801, to get your claim started.

Other Helpful Services

We have included these additional links, as they could be useful to you:

UK Government Information On Benefits For People Injured At Work

HSE Information About Slips, Falls Or Trips At Work

UK Legislation Related To Workplace First Aid

Also, these guides published on our site could give you useful information:

Thanks for reading our guide. We hope that it’s answered the question, “What steps should I take when injured at work?”

Article by Mac

Edited by Mel.