Personal injury solicitors have called on the coalition to act now and set up an Employers Liability Insurance Bureau to make sure people who suffer a personal injury at work can obtain compensation if their employer lacks the required insurance cover.
Employers are legally obligated to have insurance to cover themselves against personal injury claims, but as some victims find out to their cost, rogue employers do not always follow the letter of the law.
There is already an analogous fund to provide personal injury compensation to victims of road traffic accidents caused by uninsured motorists but no similar provision is in place for people who suffer a work accident. One accident solicitor pointed out that this leaves innocent employees without access to justice.
A case in point was recently featured by The Mirror newspaper. A 26 year old labourer suffered a blinding eye injury while he was working on a construction project at a night club in the Yorkshire city of Sheffield.
He engaged an accident solicitor to file a claim against his employer for the injuries he sustained but it soon emerged that he was not able to receive personal injury compensation because his employer did not have the requisite insurance cover.
10% of RTAs are caused by uninsured drivers but the victims are still able to receive compensation. When will the government afford similar rights to accident at work victims?