The photograph we’ve included in this article might seem a little comical. However, official health and safety bodies have released information that suggests 2014 was the worst year yet for workplace accidents. In this post, we’re going to try to find out the reasons for that and hopefully educate people, so this trend doesn’t continue. Nobody wants to hurt themselves at work, but thousands of people do each and every year. Personal injury claims have more than trebled since the early 2000s. That means many people all over the country are employing the services of specialist lawyers.

So, why are so many people getting injured at work? We’ll it could be down to a number of things. As the job market is pretty slow at the moment, employers have a far greater pool to draw upon when looking for staff. That means they’re more willing to expose people to dangerous situations. At the end of the day, they can simply find someone new if an injury occurs. However, personal injury claims can cost them thousands, and that suggests this probably isn’t a major reason for the accidents.

Here is what the experts are saying…

Increased awareness about compensation claims

One expert we spoke to said he believed there hasn’t been an increase in accidents at all. He thinks people are just a bit quicker to report them and put in a claim these days. We can see some merit in that idea. As more and more companies are offering to take cases on a no win no fee basis, people who’ve suffered a workplace injury have little to lose by putting in for compensation. While that does surely account for a certain percentage of the rise though, it can’t be the main cause of this increase.

Poor training by employers

There used to be a time when you weren’t allowed to start working in a dangerous environment until you’d had an induction and taken a look at a risk assessment. However, we see more and more these days that companies are taking people on and failing to give them proper training. Best estimates suggest that could be responsible for around 20% of all workplace accidents. With that in mind, you need to train your staff guys!

Lack of safety measures

Businesses that use heavy machinery or dangerous equipment need to take lots of safety measures to ensure their team don’t injure themselves. There should be yellow caution roll tape marking out the “danger area” on the floor around any machines, and there needs to be signs that give staff warnings. Company bosses that fail to sort that out won’t have a leg to stand on when a compensation claim is made against them.

So, how can business owners tackle this increase in workplace accidents? Well, a good idea would be to employ the services of a specialist company that deals with health and safety. You’ll have no trouble finding one online that is willing to send people to your premises who can offer advice.

We hope you get something sorted soon!