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At some point in their lives, most people will work in a short-term job to raise some cash. Whether it's as a student, a traveller or simply between jobs, temporary work will invariably be a feature of a person's life.
It is frequently in these kinds of student, holiday or temporary work situations that people find themselves at heightened risk of suffering an accident at work. The sad truth is that some employers view temporary staff as dispensable.
This attitude can lay the foundations for a culture of dispensability that is consistently associated with accidents at work.
All too often employers across the UK who employ short-term staff have a short-termist and quick-buck business mentality. Inevitably, the logical conclusion of this is that long-term results are rarely realised as businesses become trapped in periodic cycle of boom and bust.
Employers who employ this kind of opportunistic approach to business routinely find themselves labelled with accusation of short-sightedness. Examples of this are pertinently demonstrated in cases where employers take on temporary staff, neglect basic training and health and safety guidelines, then find themselves facing no win, no fee claims for accident at work compensation.
It is not uncommon for no win, no fee claims against negligent and unscrupulous employers to initially provoke reactions of obstinate defiance.
Such a response is neither recommended nor does much to recommend the accident at work perpetrator to anyone.
A large number of successful no win, no fee claimants have remarked that the initial refusal to accept accountability is often followed by a rather humbling climb-down.
It can only be supposed that this is because in cases where former temporary workers who have suffered personal injuries in accidents at work have strong and evidentially persuasive no win, no fee claims the reality is made to sink in for employers. Suddenly the employer is given a resounding wake-up call and forced to hurriedly scramble with the intent of restoring a damaged reputation.
One can only imagine that it must be a very sobering experience. Previously the employer had been in a position of power over neglected workers, the next minute they are facing reality of a no win, no fee claim, and sometimes the wrath of a criminal investigation.
Recently, when in conversation with 32-year-old former Sussex farm worker, Brian, I had this point neatly illustrated.
The London born man had left the stress and pace of city life in 2002. He had moved to Sussex as he still remembered it fondly from his childhood holidays in the 70s and 80s. "I loved it. The peace, the countryside, the sea, the stillness. It was nothing like London."
He then began to lead a life of itinerant farmhand work around Sussex and Hampshire, picking up jobs where he could and staying in campsites and caravan parks.
But in the fateful summer of 2004 he began a job that would set off the following series of significant events: accident at work; work injury agony; hospital; contact with a no win, no fee solicitors; a no win, no fee work accident claim; the prospect of a courtroom showdown; the climb-down and acceptance of liability by his former employer, the 100% compensation payout, specialist back injury physiotherapy followed by rehabilitation and finally near-complete-recovery.
"The work was literally back-breaking." He says. "Me and the other boys all really had to fight for lunch and drink breaks. We were given no training and impossible targets. The picking was killing us. I'd already voiced my concerns that my back might not be able to take it.
"Then one morning we all turned up and the boss said there'd been a change of plan. Today we'd be clearing dead trees from his wood. I couldn't believe it; we were faced with all this heavy machinery I'd never seen before. One of the lads asked if the boss thought we'd be alright, meaning would we be safe?' The boss just said, I've employed you to work for me. Of course you'll be ok. What do you think?'
"After figuring out how to use the chainsaw, I set to work. After about only five minutes over comes the boss, telling me my technique was wrong. He showed me his way of doing it then asked me to replicate it and suddenly I feel my back go. Absolute agony and I'm forced to drop the chainsaw. Thank goodness it had a safety device."
It was during the initial no win, no fee claim process that Brian received a phone call from his ex-employer.
"He told me I was light-weight, that farmwork was man's work and that if I wasn't a man I shouldn't have got a job on a farm in the first place."
But before long, soon after Brian's no win, no fee solicitor had finished compiling a strong body of evidence and witness statements, things turned unexpectedly amicable.
"His insurers paid out the work accident compensation, he offered a formal apology and I just thought wow, I can't believe it's been this easy'. Before I made the no win, no fee claim I was somehow imagining any compensation decision would culminate in a big courtroom drama Hollywood's influence, I suppose."
Needless to say, the outcome of this no win, no fee claim for work accident compensation does much to reassure one about the efficacy of the British civil legal system: someone who has abused power is checked by the power of civil justice with not a help from an expert no win, no fee solicitor. Evidence of a just society perhaps?
I ask Brian if he shares my sentiments.
"I'll leave the philosophy to you." He says. "All I know is that were it not for the no win, no fee claim , the work accident could have left me facing bad-health and poverty. So justice for me, yes. I can only speak for myself. Justice for forty-million-odd others? You better ask them."
Sounds a bit like philosophy to me Brian.
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