Slips, trips and falls are the most common cause of workplace injuries but workers’ mistakes and mishaps are not necessarily to blame. If the falling accident and risk of injury was caused or made more likely by unsafe working processes, hazards or equipment, the injured employee has the right to claim compensation for their injury and its financial consequences. Employers and business owners have a legal responsibility to provide a safe working environment for their employees. This includes taking reasonable measures to prevent injury from slipping and tripping hazards, falls from heights and other foreseeable causes of falling accidents. However, despite their duty to safeguard their employees and visitors from workplace slips, trips and falls, and the risk of severe and life-changing injury, employers’ attitudes and responses towards slips, trips and falls prevention in the workplace often include inevitability, inaction and blame. If you, or someone in your family, have suffered life-changing injury in a falling accident at work, we recommend that you seek free, confidential legal advice from our experienced workplace injury solicitors. You may be entitled to claim substantial compensation for your injuries and financial losses, as well as rehabilitation funded by your employer’s insurers to maximise your recovery. Who is responsible for injuries caused by slips, trips and falls at work? The law requires employers and business owners to take reasonable steps to reduce the risk of injury from slipping, tripping and falling accidents at work. Employers’ obligations are set out in various statutes and regulations. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers to take reasonable steps to protect the health and safety of their employees and others affected by their work. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires employers to assess risks and take any necessary actions to address them. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require floors to be appropriate, free from obstructions and kept in good condition. The legal duty or responsibility that applies to every employer is based on an assumption that awareness and action by employers can and should prevent slipping, tripping and falling injuries at work. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE} takes this legal duty very seriously and prosecutes employers who persistently ignore their responsibilities. HSE prosecution can result in substantial fines or even imprisonment for employers whose persistent non-compliance results in avoidable injury. Negative employer attitudes towards falls and slips lead to negligent mistakes Research by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) highlighted a stark lack of awareness amongst small and medium sized business (SME) employers about their responsibility to protect their employees and visitors from injury from falls. Negative and ill-informed attitudes amongst business decision-makers included: failing to recognise slips, trips and falls as important or relevant to their industry; attributing slips, trips and falls to personal responsibility, human factors and physical conditions rather than management failings; being dismissive of their responsibility and role in preventing workplace falls; failing to recognise employee fatigue, overwork, increased workload flow, surface condition and running in the workplace as causes of slips, trips and falls; failing to have a workplace footwear plan or check that their staff’s footwear is suitable for their work; assuming that falls are inevitable as people get older; believing that slips, trips and falls are inevitable in the workplace, and that nothing can be done to prevent them. Such disregard for the employer’s legal duty to take responsibility for workplace safety not only risks serious injury to workers and visitors to the workplace, but also criminal and civil liability for injuries that are suffered as a result of the employer’s negligence. How should employers reduce the risk of injury from workplace slipping and tripping accidents? The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides detailed information and guidance for employers and business owners to help them comply with their legal obligations and reduce the risk of injury from workplace slips, trips and falls. HSE advises that in many instances even straightforward measures by business owners and employers can help control the risks of slipping, tripping and falling accidents. Their recommendations for employers include: good management practises, such as planning, and training and organising staff to ensure that their business’s working practises and processes support a safe working environment; regular risk assessments; prevention and control of slipping hazards on the floor (fluids, swarf, sawdust, food and drink, polythene, cardboard); timely cleaning and tidying to ensure walkways and working areas are cleared of tripping hazards and obstructions; improving lighting; improving stairs, walkways and floor surfaces; taking measures to prevent or control slipping risks from condensation, ice or rainwater; improving workflows; ensuring that workers wear appropriate footwear. How should employers reduce the risk of injury from falls from heights at work? HSE provides detailed information and helpful advice for employers about how to protect their employees from injuries caused by falling from heights. Risk assessments and task planning must always aim to avoid working at height where there is an alternative, safer way to carry out the work from ground level. If working at height cannot be avoided then measures must be put in place to protect the workforce (collectively) and each worker (individually) from the risk of falling and minimise the distance and impact of any fall. Measures may include: using extendable tools to work from floor level, instead of using a ladder; working from an existing place that is already safe (e.g. a strong roof with a permanent perimeter guardrail); using equipment to prevent falls (e.g. mobile elevating work platforms or scaffolds); using equipment to minimise the distance and impact of a fall (e.g. safety nets, soft landing systems); using personal protection to minimise the distance and impact of a fall (e.g. a fall arrest system). Where the employer’s risk assessment concludes that a ladder must be used, the risk can be minimised by: using the correct type of ladder for the job; correct training and supervision to ensure competence and awareness of risks; using the ladder safely by following a safe system of work. Where an employer fails to take reasonable actions to protect their workers from the risk of injury from a fall, the injured worker may be entitled to claim compensation for their injury and its consequences, even if they were partly at fault. Claims for compensation after slipping, tripping or falling accidents at work Employers and business owners have a legal responsibility to take reasonable steps to provide a safe working environment and system of work for their employees and visitors to their premises. Where their negligent failure to assess and reduce the risk of slips, trips and falls, and is wholly or partly the cause of a serious injury, the injured person can make an accident at work personal injury claim for compensation. You can read more about some of the settlements we have secured for employees or visitors who were injured in slips, trips and falling accidents across a range of workplace and commercial environments: £550,000 settlement for a man who suffered a proximal tibial plateau fracture and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) when he slipped on vomit on a pub floor; £300,000 settlement plus funded rehabilitation for a roofer who suffered a fracture to his heel when he fell from a ladder whilst working at height; £250,000 settlement plus funded rehabilitation for a man who suffered Lisfranc fractures to his foot when he slipped down an unsafe riverbank whilst working for a boat hire company; £188,000 settlement for a man who suffered a moderate head injury when he fell whilst trying to move a filing cabinet down a flight of stairs; A compensation settlement for a teacher who suffered fractures and a psychological injury when he slipped on a wet grassy slope onto concrete steps, after being pelted with water in the stocks at a school fair; £102,500 settlement for a store manager who suffered a shoulder injury after tripping on an uneven floor. If you have been seriously injured in an accident at work or on business premises, and you would like to find out more about funded rehabilitation or making a claim, you can talk to one of our experienced solicitors, free and confidentially, by contacting us.
