Breach of Statutory Duty

If an employer is proved to have breached a statutory duty under current health and safety legislation, then the employee has a right to sue the employer for failing to comply with H &S legislation which has resulted in enforcement action - a prosecution by either the HSE, EHO or LFA.

An example of this could be; a lack of suitable and sufficient risk assessments in place. This is called a ‘double barrelled action’.

If the employer is found guilty under statutory law, the employee merely has to wait for the guilty verdict before submitting a claim for compensation against the employer. Due to the already guilty verdict against the company, the employee cannot lose!

Therefore it's advisable that your company develops a positive Claims Defencibility Strategy with two main objectives:

Short Term Objectives

• Development of safety systems in a short period of time
• Identifying individual management responsibilities towards safety and disciplinary procedures within an organisation
• Information, instruction, training and supervision of all employees
• Introduction of specific monitoring e.g. dust, noise etc
• Introduction of health surveillance questionnaires for pre-employees and existing employees
• Specific health surveillance

Implementing the short term strategy should develop foundations on which to build a sound defencibility strategy for the future.

Most importantly it will send out a clear message to all employees that claiming against your company will be more difficult than first thought.