Accident at Work - Compensation

CTU_Agent

Perhaps someone could shed some light on the following for me? Without going into too much detail here goes...

Person injured at work (seriously injured and hospitalised), person is not supposed to be working, i.e in receipt of social welfare payments and works cash in hand...

Is there any way to claim compensation in this scenario? Employer was fully aware of the employee's circumstances and must bear some responsibility for what happened here surely??

Anyone have any idea?

spudington16

If he's working cash in hand then I don't really see how he'd be entitled to anything. As for the employer's responsibility, I can't see any employer wanting trouble over tax etc. so he probably won't have anything to do with it.

CTU_Agent

id say ur right about the employer not wanting anything to do with it...so much so that if a sniff of a compensation claim comes his way he may decide to settle without all the hassle of courts etc etc...

On the other hand he could be screwed and have no comeback watsoever...

spudington16

To be honest, both the employer and the employee are in a shakey situation, legally; the employee is paying no tax as he is payed cash in hand but the employer is always in the wrong as a result of this. While the employee has no real rights in this scenario, the employer might be willing to settle to avoid any of this coming out into the open, for the sake of reputation and the legal repercussions.

CTU_Agent

very messy situation to be in, just have to wait and see how this play out....

spudington16

Out of curiosity, what kind of business is it, how bad is the injury and is the person likely to seek compensation? Also, was it due to management negligence?

CTU_Agent

its a building site...employer asked for employee's help lifting and tipping a container full of mortar.. mortar solidified during the lift and rolled out on top of legs... one leg broken and damaged, requires multiple operations and a hospital stint....

spudington16

Fun! Is the employee likely to seek compensation?

loyatemu

i'm no lionel hutz but...

sounds to me like the employer is liable for the injuries, he has a duty of care to employees even if he is employing them ilegally and should not allow them to put themselves in danger.

of course if it comes to court then both parties could find themselves in big trouble with the taxman (and the social in the case of the worker).

so to sum up - go find yourself a law-talking-guy and get some proper advice.

parsi

Of course if the employer ends up having to pay up (even in a pre-court scenario) he might be inclined to let the authorities know about the fella working..

Stephen

Yer man's a bit of a cúnt to keep claiming dole whilst working anyway, sounds like both of them are in trouble.

nesf

Well. Claiming the dole, and working for cash in hand is going to make things very difficult to explain for the employee and the employer.

The "employee" could sue for damages on the site as a member of the public rather than as a worker on there. But that would be a very bad idea. It would get thrown out of court (probably) when it came to light that the employee was working for cash in hand while drawing the dole.

Then again, I could be wrong.

But, since the employee was evading the tax system and illegally drawing the dole, I have absolutely no sympathy for him. Anyone stupid enough to work on a building site (ie a workplace where injuries are more than just common) for cash in hand while drawing the dole deserves to get screwed over.

Ffs, you can get good money working in construction, why screw over the taxpayers? Go do a Fás course or something, get a professional qualification and then go work properly and earn good money.

I can appreciate that being on the dole is not a choice for quite a few people on it, but the ones who don't even make an effort to get off it or those who screw it over, deserve some nice jail time in a cushy little dank cell in Mountjoy.