Cambridgeshire Skills for life Partnership - Wising UP! online Magazine


MYTH ? The TUC, in a recent report entitled 'A little compensation' found that, of about 850,000 people suffering work related illnesses or injuries caused by their work, fewer than 10%, 80,000 only, receive any compensation from either their employer or the state. And fewer than half of the 60,000 who apply for assistance under the pitifully meagre provisions of the Industrial Injuries Benefit Scheme are successful. Headlines are made by the very few six figure payments, with the vast majority at up to £10,000, reduced significantly by administrative costs and legal fees. And none would swap their previous healthy life for the so-called windfalls of this ‘forensic lottery’! Research indicates that the annual cost of compensation has remained fairly static (Better Regulation Task Force-2005)at less than £1.5 billion. The costs to the injured, the ill and to their dependants is grossly in excess of this figure to the tune of up to £15 billion. And the loss to society generally is even higher. Work-related illnesses, which figure strongly in successful claims, include occupational deafness, lung disorders and vibration white finger -although it is starkly obvious just how long these diseases have been with us and continue to cause major harm to workers. Stress and RSI sufferers may not be as ‘lucky’ in obtaining compensation! And still major companies are refusing to pay fair compensation to sufferers (US companies to contribute to a $140bn asbestos fund rather than face lawsuits of $275bn.) FACT ? On the other side of the coin is the survey carried out by Aon which found that 62% of the companies surveyed saw an increase in the cost of their claims. In addition, of these contributors: 96% do not think that the government is doing enough to tackle this issue;
		60% feel that the Compensation Culture is hampering their business by distracting management time; 49% say it diverts their financial resources and 46% said it creates too much red tape. (Studies indicate that the UK is significantly less regulated than France, US and Germany,in that order.-OECD 2002) The problem with these Survey results is that they fly in the face of the evidence; there is no massive increase in the total costs of compensation-certain elements have increased but this reflects the level and type of harm actually suffered in poorly managed firms. A RED HERRING ? This discussion may be somewhat sterile, in that the fundamentally important factor is that the strongest effort must be made to PREVENT harm, not to attempt to patch it up afterwards-the biggest defect of compensation and rehabilitative efforts, important though they are. Managing any organisation must achieve protection of the health and safety of all the workforce,contractors, visitors and members of the public who may be affected by the lack of control of its activities In the valuable words of Robert Kerr, Head of Litigation at Croner:- “Rather than worrying about claims, employers need to tackle the root of the problem, which is understanding and meeting their obligations to,and reasonable treatment of, their employees”
To find out more please contact the author‘s organisation HSE RISK MANAGEMENT. Michael J Kelly Associates at 01945 774449 or 07785 245558 Home