In all this maintaining the health and safety of the employees is a prime responsibility. Injuries happen and your response dictates the outcome.

What are the common workplace injuries?

Injury risk depends on the industry and the company. Firms like Separovic Injury Lawyers work with both employees and employers. They have seen different types of scenarios and according to them based upon the business types and the employee capacity following are the common workplace injuries.

Overexertion: this might happen due to carrying, lifting, holding, pushing, or pulling. It is the commonest type of workplace injuries.

Vehicle accidents: an employee might sustain injuries or die when driving for some business reason. If proper training was not there, it might go against employers.

Slip and fall injuries: this is the second commonest type of injury after over exertion but trips, slips and falls are quite preventable.

Repetitive motion injury: this is less obvious compared to other but such injuries happen all the same. Computer typing for long hours might for example lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. Similarly, lifting boxes regularly gives rise to chronic back issues.

Injuries due to machine entanglement: heavy machinery use is common in workplaces and so entanglement accidents might happen when, fingers, clothing, shoes, or hair is caught in the equipment.

Employer responsibilities regarding workplace accidents

The employers have a big responsibility to ensure the health conditions and safety for their employees or it might lead to penalties and citations.

Any accident that happens in the workplace or during company time elsewhere becomes the responsibility this includes injuries sustained during training, while traveling away for lunches, breaks, or for work. Employers have the legal responsibility to eliminate the hazards that might lead to serious physical injury or the death of the employees.

While it is necessary to maintain the safety of work environment in some cases employers may not have any legal liability when accidents happen. For example, when substance abuse led to workplace accident employers do not have any legal responsibility.

What are the rights of the employer in case of staff member injury at work?

Employers will do everything they can to prevent staff member injury and provide compensations when it happens but it is necessary to understand that they have certain rights as well. For example, an employer will ask specific questions regarding the employee, his or her condition of mental health where desirable, necessary, and legitimate.

This is to:

• Determine that person’s capability to perform the job duties.
• Identify the need for reasonable adjustments in recruitment and selection process or in role and work environment.
• Establish entitlement facts as workers compensation, insurance, superannuation, and sick leave.

Here the emphasis is on the legitimacy of the employer enquiries so, when a particular job involves machinery operation, the employer might ask the employee questions regarding medications they take.

Other than that, during the claims process of worker compensation scenario, the employer has the right to raise concerns with the claims representative throughout the claim duration. They can dispute the claim on solid ground or any other decisions made regarding the same. Other than that, when the resolution of the dispute does not seem satisfactory, the employers can always make an official complaint.

The employees have to provide true information during the claim and have to participate in the rehabilitation program when required. When the time comes for rejoining work, it is necessary to intimate the relevant authorities. In its absence, the employees also have to pay penalties.

Author Bio – Prisha Gupta is an experienced writer on topics relating to digital marketing services, she also writes on trends that make you & your business more successful online.