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A car production worker who had to undergo two operations after he title="Slips, Trips and Falls at Work Claims">tripped and smashed his nose at work has a received a substantial sum in compensation.
The 27-year-old, from Great Barr in Birmingham has had to take 12 weeks off work as a result of the accident, caused by poor health and safety procedures at the Land Rover factory in Solihull.
His job involves fitting metal plates to the underside of cars. On the day of the accident he was carrying a set of the plates along the production line when he tripped over an air hose which was being used by a colleague working inside a car.
Broken Nose and damaged Knee
He fell and hit his nose on the plates. He suffered a broken nose and damaged his knee.
He needed two operations to fix his nose and needed to take 12 weeks off work. His knee took eight weeks to recover.
Following the accident he contacted his union target="_blank" title="Unite">Unite which instructed its lawyers Thompsons Solicitors to pursue a claim for accident compensation.
Risk Assessment now carried out
Land Rover admitted liability and settled the claim out of court. The firm has since carried out a risk assessment and has introduced changes to the working procedure to prevent further accidents.
The client said: “I decided to pursue compensation because I felt strongly that the accident could have been prevented and I wanted to make sure that working practices were reviewed to avoid this happening to someone else.
“I’ve now had to have two operations on my nose and it is still not 100% right. I’ll have to live with this the rest of my life.”
Employees should be provided with a safe workplace
Eric McDonald from Unite added: “Employees should be provided with a safe workplace and in this case Land Rover failed to carry out a risk assessment to ensure that the safest working practices were being carried out. We were only too pleased to support this member’s claim.”
Lorna Charter from Thompsons Solicitors said: “Land Rover was in breach of health and safety at work regulations by not conducting a risk assessment on this client’s area of work. A risk assessment held after the accident clearly showed areas where safety could be improved and as a result the firm has now made those changes. It is unforgiveable that those faults were only highlighted after an employee was injured.”