The High Cost of a Claim
If any small business is in doubt about the need to make sure they are sufficiently covered when it comes to insurance, then the regular stories that make the press about the high cost of liability for accidents should banish that doubt. Complete cover for a firm would include public liability insurance but a recent story that hit the headlines is something that would be covered by insurance related to a company’s employees.
A poultry farm in Shropshire incurred a £6,000 fine and was ordered to pay £6,276 costs after one its workers fell three metres from an unguarded platform and fractured his pelvis. Llynclys Farm Ltd was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive following the accident at a poultry house on the company’s Stoke Heath Farm site in Market Drayton on 20th July 2009. It’s a case that underlines the importance of employer’s liability insurance because the farm was found to be in breach of safety regulations relating to one of its employees.
The 36-year-old agency worker who was injured was transferring hens from the poultry house of the farm, using a temporary platform made from stacks of empty cages. While negotiating this makeshift platform, the employee tripped and fell nearly three metres, fracturing his pelvis and suffering a collapsed lung.
In breach of regulations
The investigation carried out by the HSE found that although Llynclys Farm did identify falling from the platform as a risk to workers, they had not fitted any protection to the edge or taken any other precautions to stop employees falling.
The farm pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 6(3) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and faced a bill of over £12,000 including a fine and costs.
After the hearing, HSE inspector Janice Dale said: “Falling from height remains the most common cause of workplace deaths and those who survive are often seriously injured, as in this avoidable incident.
“Llynclys Farm had identified the potential for workers to fall from the platform but failed to act on its own risk assessment.”
Complying with HSE regulations is obviously a minimum requirement for any business. But accidents do happen, and if a firm is deemed liable by a court then the costs have the potential to close a business down. So every business should get fully covered, and finding cheap public liability insurance is simple by searching online. If it helps save potentially livelihood-ending fines, it’s surely worth it.
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