Tripping hazards in the workplace: there is no “compensation culture” in this country

Government Ministers and insurers declaim the “compensation culture” and the Government promises to cut through “Health & Safety” red tape which we are told is stifling business.  But there is no “compensation culture” in this country,  as the Government’s own studies have long shown.  And there are very good social reasons why employees should be able to work in a safe place of work and not have to face avoidable accidents to the detriment of their own health.

Workers are entitled to a safe place to work.

Lisa’s case is a straight forward example.   She was working as a dental nurse in a busy surgery where her working conditions were obstructed underfoot with pipes and wiring leading from the patient’s chair to suction equipment.   Each time she passed the chair she had to either kick the wires under the chair or step over them to avoid tripping.   On the first occasion she forgot to do so,  her foot was caught under her and she fell heavily upon her ankle.   

The employer immediately changed the layout of the surgery (getting in an engineer to do it the very same afternoon!).

Lisa was entitled obviously to compensation,  but calculation of this was complicated because she had already suffered an undisplaced hairline fracture of the same ankle playing football with her son six months previously. That became clear when the orthopaedic doctor to whom we sent her for a medical report examined her previous x-rays. Her ankle had troubled her but she had not known of the fracture.  

Lisa in fact needed reconstructive surgery but the medical evidence was that this surgery would have been necessary anyway because of the original injury which the fall in the dental clinic had just aggravated.

So although Lisa recovered compensation for six months additional pain and suffering following the clinic accident and her loss of income following that accident and also following the reconstructive surgery,  her total claim was valued at £3,000.00 and it settled for that sum.  The insurers paid her legal costs in full.

Under Government proposals,  because Lisa’s claim was for less than £5,000.00,  notwithstanding its complexity,  she would not be entitled to be represented by lawyers unless she pays for them herself out of her compensation.  (The proposals are that the “Small Claims” case threshold is increased from £1,000 to £5,000). The likelihood of course is that faced with an insurer refusing to pay anything without a medical report, Lisa, a young working mother on limited income, would have just not bothered.