Injur At Work

Muttly

My fiancée was injured at work. She was walking in through the door which is a heavy fire door when the wind caught it and slammed it on her hand. Fortunately she hasn't done any serious damage, only bruising. However at the time when it happened we didn't know if it was bad or not as her hand was very sore and had a fairly substantial dent in it. She reported the incident at work and asked could they supply a doctor to see if her hand was ok or not. They refused saying "it'll be fine" or words to that effect.

She had to go to a doctor herself after work as her hand had become very swolen. The doctor wasn't sure if it was broken or not but said to come back ina few days once the swelling had gone down.

As I said above its turned out to be nothing more than bruising so its not the end of the world.

However she had to pay for the doctor out of her own pocket as her job refused to pay for her to see a doctor and has since told her they don't believe it actually happened. They've reviewed cctv footage which doesn't really see the door and said they've no way to prove it happened and as such they won't pay for the doctor.

Surely there has to be some onus on the employer to cover medical expenses or at the very least provide a doctor if someone is injured at work.

We know from previous experience in the same business where a chair collapsed under a colleague that they had a doctor straight in for that person and that they had 3 weeks off work paid sick leave, but of courde this was seen by a lot of people in the canteen.

All we're asking for is the €50 that South Doc cost to be refunded. Is that unfair or is there any entitlement to it. We have the receipt from South Doc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and ideally if any legal information is supplied a source would also be very greatly appreciated.

Also yes I am aware its only €50 but to us at this moment in time €50 is a lot of money.

seamus

Muttly wrote: »

Surely there has to be some onus on the employer to cover medical expenses or at the very least provide a doctor if someone is injured at work.

Only if the employer failed in some duty of care, i.e. it was the employer's fault. If she tripped on her own shoelaces and hit her head, the employer wouldn't be obliged to pay anything.

In this case, I would chalk it up to a random occurence and move on. I personally can't see how this is the employer's liability. For example, why was her hand between the edge of the door and the door frame? Was she not pushing it by the flat part or holding onto the handle?

Reloc8

If a qualified person was of the opinion that the door in question posed a hazard which was forseeable and should have been addressed you (she) would have a case for personal injury and the 50 quid you mention.

You'll spend a lot of money through a solicitor investigating that however before you get near a court and it might be money which you never recover.

Thankfully no serious injury was suffered here. Why would you take the risk of throwing money away and equally interfering with employment relationships by suing the job ?

Muttly

We've no intention of suing the business, we just want the money back when they wouldn't provide a doctor for an injury caused at work.

The door inquestion is an outside steel door into an office building which slammed shut on her hand due to wind swinging it shut on her hand. The door doesn't have any spring/door closing mechanism to pervent slamming.

Reloc8

Muttly wrote: »

We've no intention of suing the business, we just want the money back when they wouldn't provide a doctor for an injury caused at work.


The door inquestion is an outside steel door into an office building which slammed shut on her hand due to wind swinging it shut on her hand. The door doesn't have any spring/door closing mechanism to pervent slamming.

Yeah but if they won't pay it by agreement you have no option but to sue. Which you would never do here, just to recover 50 quid as the filing charges/inconvenience alone of such a case would far outweigh the reward. If they won't pay it there's no one else who will.

As regards the door in question you're not going to get an engineer's report on boards.ie which says it is a negligent installation. And anyway even if you did you're not going to go and sue.

Person believes themselves to be entitled to money - person should ask for money - if no money person should take legal advice - subject to advice person sues for money - person gets paid money or not.

If person has no intention of suing then person just writes it off as one of life's annoyances and moves on.