It’s no surprise that there can be high numbers of accidents in places like building sites. With so many inherent dangers, there is always a real risk that an employee working on a building site will end up injured in the line of duty.
So what happens if you are working on scaffolding and you fall through a section of it? Whether a panel has broken, become loose, or was missing, you may have the right to make a claim for personal injury compensation.
Can You Claim?
It’s nearly always circumstantial when it comes to the question about whether you have a winning claim or not. There are many health and safety regulations that employers must adhere to, and a lot of them will apply when it comes to the use of scaffolding in the workplace.
We have The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations which have a section dedicated to traffic routes which can apply in scaffold cases. A walkway on scaffolding is, after all, a traffic route – so the regulations can apply. The important bits in Regulation 12 say as follows:
(1) Every floor in a workplace and the surface of every traffic route in a workplace shall be of a construction such that the floor or surface of the traffic route is suitable for the purpose for which it is used.
(2) (a)the floor, or surface of the traffic route, shall have no hole or slope, or be uneven or slippery so as, in each case, to expose any person to a risk to his health or safety;
If a panel breaks, is loose and moves, or is missing entirely, resulting in you falling through the scaffolding, your employer may be in breach of these regulations. If we can prove that, we can win the case.
But it doesn’t stop there – The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations can also apply because scaffolding can be classed as work equipment. These regulations say as follows:
(1) Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is so constructed or adapted as to be suitable for the purpose for which it is used or provided.
(1) Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
Where there are missing, loose, or defective panels, either of the above can apply. Clearly the scaffolding is not suitably safe where it poses a health and safety hazard, and clearly it isn’t maintained in an efficient working state where it breaks. Again, proving that these regulations have been breached can pave the way for you to make a winning compensation claim.
Who is at fault?
So now you know when you may have a claim, it’s important to address who can be at fault. Construction sites will often have several companies and contractors working on them – so we could argue that the company with overall responsibility of the site is at fault; or we could argue the scaffolding company can be at fault, for obvious reasons; or we can argue your employer is at fault given that they may inadvertently be in breach of health and safety legislation.
It isn’t always easy to establish who to blame right from the start.
