Injured at the workplace could you be fired if you claim...?

If you are seriously injured at work and decide to make a personal injury claim towards your company, you may be thinking whether this may result in you being fired. This is one of the most common questions that we come across as a firm of work accident solicitors.

The simple answer is that an employer in most circumstances can't sack an injured member of staff simply because they choose to make a claim for compensation following an accident endured over the course of their employment. However, there are risks associated with making a claim of this kind and it's also only right that an employee fully understands what might or might not happen if a claim goes ahead.

The first important issue to find out is whether or not the worker has been working in the same job for more than 12 months. If so, then the employee is entitled to full employment rights and would be able to consider an unfair dismissal claim and tribunal action were he or she to be let go in these conditions. However, it follows that if you've been employed by less than 12 months in the same job, you have restricted legal rights and will probably not be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal.

Assuming that you do have full employment rights, the employer must be careful in terms of how they handle your injury associated absence and your return to the workplace. They must help you return to work by offering you an opportunity to carry out light duties or maybe complete office based sedentary tasks which reduce the risk of your injuries re-occurring. An employer is not forced to take these steps, but certainly it is reasonable to expect some sort of cooperation to be able to enable you to return to work.

One thing that can occasionally happen in these situations, is that the boss or line manager, suddenly becomes very hard to deal with. If this occurs, then you might think about raising a grievance in order to bring an end to any animosity. To repeat, assuming you have been employed by more than 1 year, you have employment rights and you ought to exercise these as and when essential.

For people who do not have full employment rights, you do need to be cautious about creating a work accident claim. The truth is, however, that where an injury is comparatively severe and has caused not just pain, suffering and also hardship through an inability to earn a salary, it is only fair that a claim is considered in the situations. Once more it's not possible to give any promises about whether an employer will seek to terminate your contract, but such a step would be deemed extremely unjust. It may well be that if the employer does release the injured accident victim from their contract, and the person concerned can not find other work due to ongoing injury related problems. If this happens then a substantial loss of earnings claim could be made against the company's insurance company. Effectively an injured party is able to regain any losses which can be attributed to the accident and this includes past and future loss of earnings in some cases.

The key thing to remember if you are in this situation is to always seek legal advice from a certified solicitor. A work accident solicitor will be able to fully inform you about your legal rights and clarify ways to safeguard your interests by making a compensation claim. There can be risks associated with making any claim and more so when the person you are chasing is actually your boss. But it really boils down to whether your accident injuries are significant enough to warrant a compensation claim.When they are, then we would encourage you to think about what's in your own best interests, as opposed to perhaps in the interests of the boss.