According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), any business with employees must have some level of employers’ liability insurance in place. This professional insurance policy is a form of protection should employees become injured or ill whilst at work and sue their employers for compensation.
The latest injury at work compensation claim comes from a group of 25 former coal-miners from the North West, who are suing eight firms – including Raleys, Beresfords and Saffmans – for inadequate compensation after they developed the condition ‘vibration white finger’ in the course of their duties.
Compensation was originally paid to the miners under the government’s Coal Health Compensation Scheme, but the 25 miners believe that the amount they received was disproportionate to the suffering they endured as a result of the condition.
Professional negligence lawyers are representing the miners in Leeds County Court, and the case is said to worth around £450,000.
If these claims are successful, industry experts believe that this could open the floodgates to many more complaints and lawsuits from ex-miners unsatisfied with their payouts from government schemes. Apart from vibration white finger, the other chief complaints relate to respiratory disease.