Compensation for Lighting Injuries at Work

Is it possible to claim compensation for lighting injuries at work due to poor workplace lighting? I tripped over a box of paper left in a storage area of the office where the lighting is terrible. My boss told me that because the lighting is bad I should have taken greater care.

Question:

Is it possible to claim compensation for lighting injuries at work due to poor workplace lighting? I tripped over a box of paper left in an area where the lighting is terrible. My boss told me that because the lighting is bad I should have taken greater care.

Answer:

Lighting levels in the workplace need to be adequate to allow workers to perform their jobs safely and, should poor lighting result in an injury being sustained, it is usually possible to claim compensation for lighting injuries at work. Lighting injury compensation covers any failure in lighting which causes an injury. Providing that it can be established that a lack of suitable lighting was to blame for you having an accident at work, and the accident was how you sustained your injuries, then you should be eligible to claim compensation for lighting injuries at work.

Low light levels which prevent employees from performing their duties safely is classed as a failure in your employer´s “duty of care”, and your employer may have been negligent for not ensuring that appropriate lighting was provided. Claiming that you were aware of the lighting problems and should have taken more care does not mean that your employer is not liable to pay you compensation for lighting injuries at work. You are not expected to have to make up for any health and safety failings in your place of work which have not been properly addressed by your employer. It is not uncommon for claims for compensation for poor office lighting to be made by office employees, and inadequate lighting is a common reason why trip hazards are not spotted.

The combination of poor lighting and a trip hazard makes an accident even more likely to occur. Even if an object as large as a box of paper would normally have been be spotted by an attentive employee and should not have resulted in an accident, this by itself can be classed as a failure in a duty of care and employer negligence. Due to two areas of negligence, it is likely that any claim for compensation for lighting injuries at work should have a good chance of being successful.

Any object left on the floor represents a trip hazard, which is why employers are duty bound to ensure that all thoroughfares are kept scrupulously clean and clear from objects, no matter how large or obvious they may appear. They always have potential to result in an accident, as employees cannot be expected to be attentive to every single step they take. Even if your employer did not personally leave the box of paper on the floor, if this was in an area which staff were authorised to visit, the box should not have been left where it represented a trip hazard. Your employer should therefore be liable for any injuries sustained by staff for tripping and falling, regardless of the level of lighting.

It would appear that your employer has failed to take adequate care to ensure the safety of employees on two counts and, as either one would give you grounds to make a claim for compensation, you should therefore have a strong chance of recovering compensation for your injuries due to multiple health and safety failures in the workplace. Even though you should be able to claim compensation for lighting injuries at work it is recommended that you speak with a personal injury solicitor for advice. If your employer has indicated that he does not believe you have a valid claim, it will be to your advantage to ensure that you have professional legal representation. You will be provided with advice on what you need to do next in order to make a claim for compensation for lighting injuries at work, and will be given guidance about how best to go about recovering compensation for your injuries.