A Nightshift Cleaner Receives Hefty Compensation for Her Broken Arm

A woman called Wioletta Drozdz has recently received lump sum compensation after she broke her right arm in an accident at work. The 27 year old woman, who was working as a part of a bakery equipment cleaning team under Crantock Bakery, was removing the extra dough from an unguarded baking machine during the accident. The blade she was operating to scrape the surplus flakes all of a sudden slipped from her hand and caused her injury. The case was filed in the Bodmin Magistrates Court that ordered the Cornish bakery to pay £29,000 for its failure to ensure workplace safety.

Drozdz had to undergo a surgery to treat the broken bones in her forearm. She underwent physiotherapy for fast recovery. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) conducted an investigation to find out that the machine was operating without a safety guard for one long year and the victim did not receive any special training to clean the conveyor in a proper manner. The Crantock Bakery Ltd of Indian Queens accepted its guilt and admitted the violation of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and pleaded guilty for transgressing Regulation 11 (1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The no win no fee solicitors dealing with the case stated that the accident could have if avoided if the machine was equipped with safety equipments.

Wioletta Drozdz is not the first person to suffer work-related accidents. There are many workers in the UK who become the innocent victims of the workplace accidents and lose some of their body parts or become disabled. Majority of these worksite accidents could have been prevented if the employers were careful enough to initiate health and safety programs and ensure worksite safety. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is endeavoring hard to introduce new rules and regulations to ameliorate the safety of the workplaces.

Workplace injuries occur either due to the employer’s negligence or because of the concerned employee’s incompetence and carelessness. Under the law, the business entrepreneurs should be responsible enough to ensure health and safety management of their worksites. Under the health and safety law, the business owners should access the accident risks in the worksite and implement health and safety programs and do whatever is needed to achieve this. The employers must be prompt enough to communicate the risks in the worksite and initiate training programs to teach the employees how to prevent accidents and how to act in emergency situations to avoid severe damages.

Due to the negligence of the employers, number of workplace accidents is rising in the UK. The government is worried about the increasing work accident claims and has decided to crack down the work accident claims. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, described the rising number of work accident claims as an “albatross around the neck of British businesses”. However, this decision of the government can prove to affect the individuals who suffer accidents and industrial illness and injuries due to the carelessness of their employers.