Accidents happen anytime and anywhere no matter how careful you try to be, including when you are working. Every employer should put health and safety at the very top of their priority list, to ensure that their employees are safe from injury when doing their job. Some jobs are more dangerous than others, meaning that you are more likely to get injured, but accidents can happen with any employment.
If you ever find yourself in this position, it is important that you do not simply ignore the incident and know exactly what steps to take to deal with this situation. In this article, we will advise you of what you should do when you get injured outdoors for work-related purposes.
Call for Help
If you get injured outdoors whilst you are on the job, evidently, you should not continue the job as normal. The injuries you sustain will greatly depend on the accident you have, but make sure that you call for help if you need it. This is particularly important if you need medical support right away. Being outside means you may be more likely to call for a member of the public, or even one of your colleagues that may be around. If not, try to use your phone as possible to contact a colleague or even a manager.
Report the Incident
At every job, there will be health and safety policies in place as well as a health and safety lead. Employers expect their employees to be aware of what is required of them as employees to ensure they remain safe. You should always familiarise yourself with these in case you find yourself injured at work, and these will also tell you who to contact in order to report the event. Reporting this as soon as possible, either to your manager or to your health and safety lead is crucial so that there is evidence of what happened. If you need to take legal action against your employer, you must have more than just your work to rely on in court.
Hire a Lawyer
Usually, when you get involved in a work-related accident, employers may follow the appropriate steps and even give you compensation for what happened. This compensation is essentially a financial reward that you may get to help you recover and pay for medical bills. On top of this compensation, employers may also give you paid time off so that you can fully focus on your rehabilitation, depending on the injuries sustained. However, in some cases, bosses may argue that this happened due to your own neglect and that you are the guilty party, and they will try to prove that you did not follow health and safety guidelines. Understandably, you may not know much about personal injury cases and the law behind compensation, therefore it would be a good idea to consult with a workers’ comp lawyer so that someone can advise you of what you will be entitled to. A lawyer can not only advise you, but they can also make sure that all the steps above are taken care of so that you can fully focus on your rehabilitation and other aspects of your life.
Seek Medical Help
Evidently, if you have sustained injuries in the accident, your health and wellbeing need to be a priority. You will need to make sure that you are fit and well, even if you cannot see any physical injuries. It is important that you go see your doctor as soon as possible for a thorough assessment of your wellbeing and to ensure that you do not have any internal injuries. Additionally, if you have hurt yourself during the work incident, the doctor’s notes and assessment will act as evidence of what happened, much like what we discussed above.
Find Witnesses
As mentioned briefly before, if you want to pursue legal action against the firm you work for, you will need to gather evidence as well as witnesses, so that your statement can be supported. Hopefully, there will be someone that may have seen what happened with you and can argue that you did take the appropriate steps to avoid being in an accident and that there is no way you could have avoided it. Your witness does not necessarily have to be someone that works with you, they can be a member of the public – as long as they witness what happened and can provide the court with their own version of the events.
Being involved in an accident at work can have many complications as employees often do not want to be at war with their employers. However, if you find yourself in this unfortunate situation, make sure to follow the tips discussed on this page so that you resolve the situation efficiently.
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