In a press release on 13 November 2012, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has highlighted a proposed change to Health and Safety at Work that threatens to return Scotland to Victorian times.
The amendment of Section 47 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 would alter laws that have been in place since the end of the 19th century. As the law stands, if a worker is injured and he or she can show the employer is in breach of health and safety regulations, there is a right to claim compensation. The proposed changes will mean an injured person would no longer be able to rely on this right but would have to start from square one and prove that negligence had occurred.
It seems inevitable that this change will mean employers’ liability cases becoming more complex – and so more expensive to run. Many legitimate claims could be denied redress in future, leaving people injured at work having to rely on their families and the State to support them rather than the insurers of their employers.
Please consider signing the e-petition detailed below and opposing this backward step in society’s protection of workers – something which potentially affects all of us, either as an injured person or as one of their relatives.
You never know when you might need to make a claim as a result of an injury at work.
You can read APIL’s press release here.
You can read the arguments relative to the e-petition, and sign the petition if you wish, here.
