I Had An Accident At Work, What Are My Rights In The UK For Making A Claim?

If you have been injured in a workplace accident, you may have questions such as, “I had an accident at work, what are my rights in the UK?” From making an accident at work claim to applying for statutory sick pay, you have various rights following a workplace accident. In this guide, we explore these in more depth.

What Are My Rights If I Had An Accident At Work?

Your main rights under UK law, if you have a workplace accident, include:

  • Reporting details of a workplace accident in the workplace accident book.
  • Receiving first aid or medical assistance for workplace injuries.
  • Accessing Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and/or contractual sick pay while off work.
  • Reporting safety issues or concerns.
  • Making a claim for compensation.
  • Joining a trade union for advice and support.
  • Requesting reasonable adjustments to aid your return to work.

If you have had an accident at work, you can contact us to see how we may be able to help you. Contact a member of our advisory team by:

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Select A Section

  1. Reporting The Accident
  2. Seeking Medical Attention
  3. Your Rights Around Sick Pay
  4. Can I Be Fired For Having An Accident At Work?
  5. Making An Accident At Work Claim
  6. How Much Does It Cost To Make An Accident At Work Claim?
  7. Get More Information

Reporting The Accident

Following an accident at work, you have a right to report this accident. This report could be made to your manager or supervisor.

Additionally, you could log your accident in the workplace accident book. Any company with ten or more employees legally must have an accident book on site. In this report you (or a colleague who witnessed the accident if you are unable to) should list:

  • When the accident took place.
  • How the accident occurred.
  • What injuries were suffered.
  • Was any first aid or treatment provided on site.

It is important to report an accident at work, as this report can be used by your employer to ensure a similar accident does not occur again in the future. Additionally, if you decide to pursue a personal injury claim, this report could be used as evidence for your case.

Additionally, employers must report certain accidents to the Health and Safety Executive under The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR). The types of accidents that need to be reported include any that lead to:

  • The death of any person.
  • Specified injuries, such as fractures, amputations or crush injuries.

If you have any questions, such as, ‘What procedures must be followed if you had an accident at work?’ or ‘I had an accident at work, what are my rights in the UK?’, you can contact our advisors.

Seeking Medical Attention

After suffering a workplace injury, you should seek treatment for it. You may need to receive initial first-aid treatment at the accident scene from the designated first-aider at your workplace.

Depending on the type of injury you suffered and its severity, you could seek medical attention by booking an appointment with your GP or attending Accident & Emergency (A&E).

It is important to seek medical attention for your injuries to ensure you receive the proper treatment to aid your recovery. Additionally, a report will be generated from this visit and added to your medical records. You could request a copy of your medical records to use this report as evidence when making an accident at work claim.

If you have any questions regarding what to do if you hurt yourself at work, you can contact a member of our advisory team.

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Your Rights Around Sick Pay

You may also be wondering, ‘I had an accident at work; what are my rights in the UK regarding sick pay?’

If you have been injured in the workplace, depending on the type and severity of your injury, you may need to take time off of work. This could lead to a loss of earnings.

If you need to take time off from work due to an injury or illness, you may be eligible for contractual sick pay. However, it is not a legal obligation for your employer to provide this, so you should check the terms of your contract to see if your workplace offers this.

Alternatively, you could be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). To qualify for this, you must:

  • Have done some work for your employer and be classed as an employee (or an agency worker)
  • Been off ill for 3+ consecutive days (including non-working days)
  • Earn around £123 per week.

If you qualify, you could be entitled to receive £116.75 per week for up to 28 weeks. However, you will not be paid for the first 3 days that you were off sick.

You could also be eligible to claim any lost earnings as part of a compensation settlement when making a personal injury claim following an accident at work that was not your fault. Contact our advisors today to learn more.

Can I Be Fired For Having An Accident At Work?

If you have been involved in an accident at work that was not your fault, generally, they cannot fire you for this. If they do, this may be referred to as unfair dismissal.

Additionally, if you decide to pursue personal injury compensation after a workplace accident that was not your fault, your employer cannot fire you for this either, as you have a right to make an accident at work claim (if you meet the eligibility requirements we will set out in the next section).

However, if you were responsible for your accident due to being negligent, your employer may have valid grounds to fire you for this. For example, your employer instructs you not to use a forklift as you have not been trained. You ignore this and use it anyway, causing you to crash into another employee.

If you were involved in a workplace accident, you can contact our advisory team to see how we may be able to help you.

A worker in a hi-vis vest winces in pain as he holds his arm.

Making An Accident At Work Claim

Another question you may have is, ‘I had an accident at work; what are my rights in the UK regarding claiming compensation for my injuries?’

If you have suffered work-related injuries, you may be eligible to make a compensation claim. However, certain eligibility requirements will need to met. These are:

  • Your employer owed a duty of care.
  • They breached this.
  • Your injury was caused by this breach.

The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HASAWA) sets out the duty of care owed by employers in the UK. It states that your employer must take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure your health and safety while you are performing your work duties and are in the workplace.

To adhere to their duty of care, your employer should, for example:

  • Provide necessary training to complete your work tasks, such as manual handling training.
  • Perform regular risk assessments of the workplace.
  • Maintain workplace machinery regularly and repair any defective equipment.
  • Provide suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) when necessary.

Should your employer fail to do any of this, and this caused you to become injured, you could be eligible for compensation.

What If I Was Partially Responsible For My Accident?

You still have a right to make a claim even if you were partially responsible for your accident. This is referred to as split liability.

For example, the brakes on a forklift were defective, and your employer knew this but had failed to replace or repair them. You use this forklift and drive recklessly, and crash into a wall due to this and being unable to brake in time.

When making a split liability claim, how much compensation you would receive would depend on how liable you are deemed to be for the accident. For example, if you are considered 50% liable, you would only receive 50% of the total compensation had you not been liable at all.

Contact one of our advisors today to see whether you may be eligible to claim.

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How Much Does It Cost To Make An Accident At Work Claim?

Technically, it does not cost you anything to begin an accident at work claim. However, certain fees may arise throughout the claims process. For example, you may need to pay to attend an independent medical assessment, or your solicitor may charge you for their services.

The solicitors who work on our panel offer their expert services on a No Win No Fee basis by specifically working under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). With this in place, you can experience:

  • Not having to pay any fees upfront for work to begin on your claim.
  • Not paying for their services throughout the claims service.
  • Having no service fees to pay if the claim is unsuccessful.
  • Only having to pay a success fee in the event of a successful claim. This is a legally-limited percentage that your solicitor will deduct from your compensation.

Contact Us

If you are still wondering, ‘I had an accident at work, what are my rights in the UK?’ or would like to know whether you could be eligible to work with one of the No Win No Fee solicitors on our panel, you can contact a member of our advisory team by:

Get More Information

Here you can read more of our personal injury claims guides:

Some additional resources:

We hope that this guide has helped answer, ‘I had an accident at work, what are my rights in the UK?’.