Hello Everyone,
Looking to get your thoughts on a situation we find ourselves in at the moment.
We have an employee who is pursuing three claims against the company for three separate injury incidents. The guys has apparently received three injuries during work, which we have no witnesses to, but nor can we prove that they didn't occur. He has been absent on long term sick and his solicitor is trying to claim damages.
We have documented risk assessments for the tasks he was carrying out, however we are being challenged on the fact that he has not signed them off to acknowledge an understanding of the risks and control measures. Is this really a valid defence? Surely the risk assessment is a mangement tool which forms part of a safe system of work. With one thousand employees in the UK and several hundred documents, is it realistic that everyone should be expected to sign a receipt of these?
I am sceptical about the legitimacy of this individuals injury, and was informed he returned to work following his sick pay being stopped, only to then have an incident two days later which resulted in a fractured finger.
We have a lot of well educated people in the business, and for some reason this individual is playing us like a proverbial fiddle.
We have reports of him being seen getting into a works van whilst off work injured, however nothing concrete. Apparently the broken finger may also have been as a result of fighting, but again this cannot be proven. All we know is that there were no witnesses to this apparent injury at work.
The injury occurred when he was descending from a pipe stack on a cargo vessel. He climbed down the high side, stumbling and apprently fracturing his finger. The supervisor advised that he was the only one to take this route, and everyone else had came down the lower side of the stack to egress safely.
Isn't being reckless and not adhering to section 7 of the HSW Act. a factor here? He is claiming he carried out a 'dynamic risk assessment' and had done this many times before.
For me, he is clearly playing the game, and looks set to claim a significant figure in damages.
Would appreciate any advice or thoughts regarding this.
Thanks.
Edited by user 08 November 2017 10:27:40(UTC)
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