If ‘my home is my castle’, then next on the list of safe havens should be my workplace. Under common law, employees have a right to expect their employer to:
- take care of their safety,
- make sure they are not exposed to undue risks,
- ensure that they have a safe system of work.
Most employers do their best to provide a secure working environment. Accidents at work still happen, though, when they ought not. That you might get assaulted at work is unthinkable. Nevertheless, it happens. Employees get attacked at work, by colleagues, members of the public or those they are entrusted to look after.
Assaulted at work – facts and figures
There were 688,000 reported incidents of violence at work in the year 2019/2020. Of this figure, 389,000 incidents were threats of violence. The remaining 299,000 were physical attacks. The perpetrators of violence are both work colleagues and members of the public.
Who is most at risk of an assault at work?
Anyone in any job is at some risk of assault at work, whether from a work colleague or another person.
Workers in certain occupations are at greater risk of being the victims of assault from members of the public.
Occupations that carry a higher-than-average risk of assault from a member of the public include:
- Police officers.
- Prison warders.
- Pub and nightclub doormen.
- Security guards.
- Social workers.
- Teachers.
- Care workers.
- Public Transport staff.
- Doctors and nurses in A&E departments or on the ward.
- Emergency workers: paramedics, on-call doctors, and firefighters.
- Hotel workers.
- Shopworkers.
- Waiters and café/restaurant staff.
- Traffic enforcement officers.
- Debt collectors.
The list is not exhaustive. The reality is that anyone who works with the public is at risk of assault. In some occupations, that risk is higher than it is in others.
What is meant by the term ‘assault at work’?
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) booklet, ‘Violence at Work – A Guide for Employers’, defines work-related violence as:
‘any incident in which a person is abused, threatened, or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work.’
Verbal abuse comes within the definition of work-related violence. Threatening or abusive words do not cause physical injuries. Yet they can cause the victim to suffer a psychological injury. That is even more the case, if the threats continue over a prolonged period.
What should employers do to protect employees from the risk of assaults at work?
Legal requirements govern the steps employers must take to protect employees from work-related violence. The HSE has published a guide to Preventing Workplace Harassment and Violence. The guide outlines steps employers must carry out and which include:
- Ensuring they protect the health and wellbeing of employees, ‘so far as is reasonably practicable.’
- Carrying out a risk assessment of the significance and likelihood of any risk (including incidents of workplace violence).
Having assessed the risks, the employer must decide how to manage those identified. Then they must set out plans to deal with the potential hazards.
- Consulting with employees on matters relating to health and safety at work. This includes advising them of the outcome of risk assessments.
- Ensuring employees know of their duty to adhere to company policies relating to violence at work.
Can I make a claim against my employer for a workplace assault?
If you are injured because of an assault at work, you have the right to claim bring a claim against your employer. This would be a personal injury claim.
Whether your claim has reasonable prospects of success, depends on whether the attack on you was ‘foreseeable’.
Lawyers often use the phrase, ‘reasonably foreseeable’. In cases of workplace assault, the question they ask themselves is whether it was reasonably foreseeable that an assault was likely to happen?
For example, have there been previous assaults on colleagues?
If there were previous assaults, how did your employer react to them? Did your employer use those incidents as a warning to take measures to try and prevent further assaults? If your employer did nothing in response, then an assault at work claim may succeed.
If you are the victim of an assault at work, and it turns out that your employer has failed to take any of the steps outlined earlier (including carrying out a risk assessment), bringing an assault at work compensation claim against your employer may have reasonable prospects of succeeding.
Other circumstances that may entitle you to claim against your employer after an assault at work include:
- Where staffing levels become low, and an employer fails to rectify the situation in response, e.g., prison service, emergency services, schools, hospitals, care homes.
- Lack of suitable training – occupations where employees deal with vulnerable or unstable individuals.
- Failing to provide personal protective equipment such as suitable clothing, equipment, barriers/screens.
How do I claim compensation for an ‘assault at work’?
If you are considering bringing an assault at work claim against your employer, seek legal advice. Make sure that you talk with an experienced assault at work solicitor.
The law relating to both assault at work claims and accident at work claims is similar. That said, assault in the workplace cases are often the more complicated claims to pursue. In effect, you are claiming that your employer was to blame for the deliberate act of another person. That person may or may not be a colleague.
Mooneerams are specialist personal injury solicitors. We only deal with claims on behalf of claimants. That means we act for those who seek access to justice to claim compensation and to put right, a wrong.
We do not act for insurance companies or employers.
Mooneerams are a niche firm; we only deal with personal injury cases. As a result of many years of dealing with assault at work claims, we have become experts.
No Win No Fee Assault at Work Claims Solicitors
We handle most assault at work claims for our clients on a No Win No Fee agreement basis. If you have the benefit of a No Win No Fee agreement it means, that:
- If you lose your claim, you will have nothing to pay.
- If you win your claim, you will have nothing to pay to the other side (your employer’s insurance company). You will pay us a fee. The amount you pay us will be a proportion of the amount of compensation you receive upon winning the claim. We will agree the way the fee gets calculated before you sign any agreements with us.
No Win No Fee claims are popular. They remove any fears that clients have about having to pay legal fees if they lose their case. This enables claimants to concentrate on pursuing their assault at work claims.
How do I contact Mooneerams solicitors?
Call Mooneerams now on 029 2048 3615.
You can also contact us by clicking on the link here. Please leave your details for us to call you back at a time that is most convenient to you.
When you call us, we will go through the details of your potential claim with you. Our experienced personal injury expert will give you friendly, expert advice and guidance. They will assess the prospects of your making a successful assault at work injury claim.
If we believe your claim has reasonable prospects, we will be happy to take on your claim. Our legal experts will not put any pressure on you. You are free to use any solicitor of your choice. We hope you will choose Mooneerams.
Mooneerams Solicitors offices are in Cardiff. We have satellite offices in Aberdare, Bridgend, Cardiff Bay, Caerphilly, Merthyr Tydfil, Pontypridd and Swansea.