A guide to: Your rights after an accident at work

What is an accident at work

An accident at work is when you injure yourself during the undertaking of your work duties, or an accident that occurs in your workplace. It may be a serious accident or minor one and can take place in all types of work. They often occur because your employer is negligent.

Accidents at work can include, for example:

• manual handling accidents
• exposure to chemical or funes
• repetitive strain injuries
• crashes
• collisions

What law protects me if I have an accident at work?

If you have an accident after work a variety of laws protect you. You're also protected by Health and Safety regulations.  Here are the laws which are in place to keep you well and safe at work:

• The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 if you work in either England or Wales
• The Health and Safety at Work Order 1978 if you work in Northern Ireland
• the Equality Act 2010
• the Employment Rights Act 1996

These laws state that your employer must:

• ensure you have the right and adequate training to carry out your job
• use the correct personal protective equipment where necessary
• ensure they keep all equipment tools and machinery in a good working condition
• put up warning signs whenever they are needed

What are my employer's responsibilities to keep me safe?

An employer is responsible for keeping all workers safe when they are at work. This covers everyone regardless of their employment status. Therefore, for example, temporary staff are included as are part-time staff and agency staff. Your employer's responsibilities include:

• providing a safe working environment
• to ensure that these standards meet health and safety requirements
• to have correctly trained first aiders
• have an emergency plan in place for workplace accidents
• allowing adequate rest breaks and time off work for workers
• to carry out risk assessments

Does my employer have any legal responsibilities?

The laws that protect you from an accident in the workplace require your employer to keep you safe at work. They have a duty of care towards their workers to protect them from injury and illness. 

Therefore, your employer has legal responsibilities for your safety in the workplace. These include, for example, to have an accident report book for injuries where there are more than 10 employees in their workplace.

What should I do if I have an accident at work?

If you have an injury or accident in the workplace there are certain steps you should take. These include the following:

• seek immediate medical help for your injury and if you do not require immediate medical treatment at the hospital see your GP after to check your health
• report  the accident in the accident report book where there is one or report it in writing
• take photos of the accident area such as any  unsafe conditions and of the injury for evidence in any compensation claim
• make a note of who witnessed the accident for future evidence and take their contact details 
• write down exactly what happened
• gather evidence to support your workplace accident in case you wish to make a compensation claim
• seek legal advice for a workplace compensation claim

If you have an accident at work you could claim compensation and the steps you take when you have an accident can affect this. 

Could I be sacked after an accident at work?

It is illegal for your employer to sack you after an accident at work simply because you make a compensation claim for a workplace accident. This applies even if the accident was your fault. Your employer also cannot suggest that they will sack you if you make a workplace compensation claim. 

You may be able to take your employer to an employment tribunal and an employment solicitor for a claim for unfair dismissal if they do sack you after an accident at work.

Do I have the right to sick pay if injured at work?

If you sustain an injury at work and need to take time off as sick, you may be entitled to:

• statutory sick pay (SSP) 
• contractual sick pay from your employer depending on your contract
• benefits

If you believe you are entitled to sick pay from your employer and they deny you this, speak to your union representative. 

You may also be able to claim for a loss of earnings after a workplace accident causes you to be off work. This will be examined in any workplace compensation claim.

Does Employer's Liability cover workplace accidents?

If you suffer a workplace accident, employer's liability may cover it. This will be the case where the accident was not your fault but instead due to your employer's negligence or a mistake of another worker. 

Your employer may still be liable if you are partly liable for the accident at work. Your employer should also have accident procedures, and they should have insurance to cover their workers for any injuries.

Could I claim for an accident at work?

When you experience an injury at work or have an accident at work, you may be able to claim compensation. Accidents at work can occur in many different industries such as in factories or in office jobs.  Construction site workplace injuries are very common. However, when you are at work you should feel safe and workplace accidents should not occur. Therefore, if you do have an injury and it was not your fault, you can make a compensation claim. 

An injury or accident in the workplace can affect your whole life. It can cause problems in your personal life and stop you from working for a prolonged period . It is, therefore, vital that you, therefore, get the compensation due to you.

Let National Accident Helpline help you make your workplace compensation claim today.  Call or you can ask us to give you a call back here.  If you prefer, you can begin your claim online here. 

How do I make an accident at work claim?

Making an accident at work compensation claim with National Accident Helpline is easy.  After the difficulties your accident at work has caused you, we ensure you avoid any further difficulties with us. Therefore, at National Accident Helpline, we have made our compensation claim process simple. We even help you to find out how much compensation you can get through our online compensation calculator. 

When you make your accident at work claim with National Accident Helpline, you will first speak with our sympathetic and attentive advisors. They will take an account of your workplace accident and then pass this information on to our specialist solicitors. Our experienced and highly competent legal team will immediately get on with progressing your claim. 

At National Accident Helpline, we offer a no-win no fee basis for your compensation claim for an injury in the workplace. With no-win no-fee, you do not pay a thing to make your claim. This means that if for any reason it does not go through,  you lose nothing.

If you have had a workplace accident make your personal injury compensation on claim today.  Give us a call at and begin your compensation claim. Alternatively, ask us to call you back here or start your claim online.