Personal injury advice from
Thompsons Solicitors
Insufficient Manual Handling Training Causes Workplace Injury
3rd July 2007
An employee injured whilst handling heavy items at work was recently awarded compensation with help from our specialist personal injury lawyers.
Lifting and Handling Injury
A council employee was injured in an accident at work whilst trying to lift heavy kerb stones. His employer claimed that he had been properly trained in manual handling and thus they were not responsible for his injury.
The claimant appointed The Legal Line’s lawyers, Thompsons Solicitors, to assist him in making a compensation claim.
Insufficient Safety Training
The defendants told the court that the claimant had attended a kerb laying course, received ‘tool box talks’, had spoken to his own manager and attended a meeting with another manager, all as part of his training.
When provided with details of these however, the Judge rejected the claim that the claimant had been adequately trained. The kerb laying course was nowhere near sufficient for the purposes of health and safety and the tool box talks were simply notes read out to employees at the beginning of each day.
Additionally, the talk with his manager consisted only of the claimant being reprimanded for lifting kerb stones alone, but this was not a method of systematically reinforcing his training and did not fulfil his employer’s duty. The meeting with the other manager was not directly relevant to manual handling and was also disregarded.
The Judge found in favour of the claimant and he was awarded damages in respect of his injuries.
Accident at Work Compensation
If you or a member of your family have suffered a personal injury as the result of an accident at work, you may be entitled to compensation.
Contact The Legal Line on 0800 0328511, or by completing an online compensation claim form. Our lawyers are experts in all areas of personal injury and industrial disease and can provide cost free accident claim advice and assistance.
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