Accident at work compensation?

[eldudereno]

Normally I'm not the type of person to go along with this new health and safety bullst, near miss procedures and compensation etc but...

Was on the shopfloor this morning at work talking to a guy when totally out of the blue the guy I was talking to shouted 'watch out' and fractions of a second later I felt an almighty bang on the lower back part of my neck. Apart from the massive shock that I received the pain subsided and everything seemed ok. One of the other guys at work had been moving a steel frame weighing about 35kg, approx 2200mm high by 1000mm wide by 400mm deep on a pallet truck, the thing slipped off the truck and the highest part of this steel frame wacked me on the back of my neck. After my initial recovery and lots of apologies from this guy I went back up to my office but about 20 mins later the lower part of my neck swelled up a bit accompanied by a touch of pain and soreness. My next move was to get my neck checked out by one of the first aiders and fill in an accident report etc which was then passed onto the health and safety manager. As I type this my neck is a bit sore to the touch and I've been experiencing some very very slight lower back pain. My question to you guys is, should I seek compensation? I'm not the type of person to normally do this, as accidents do happen at work, it's no big deal to me, but I found out last Tuesday morning that the b*stards are making me redundant!!!! Even though the reason for my redundancy has been blamed on lack of R&D funding from our head office, I know for a fact that they've targeted me because of my recent sickness record, as I was off work recently for 6 weeks with stress. The guy that will be doing most of my design work is the biggest arse licker you could ever meet, his job title is 'technical support engineer' but he cannot even work out the area of a circle and this is the honest truth, he once said thanks after listening to his answer phone. To say that I'm bitter is an extreme understatement!!!

My biggest worry is experiencing neck or other related spinal problems in the future but it would also be nice to get some extra cash from them because of my pending redundancy at the end of November.

What would you do in my position?

Thanks

[mybrainhurts]

You wouldn't get cash from them, you'd get cash from their insurers.

[4nonymous]

mybrainhurts said:

You wouldn't get cash from them, you'd get cash from their insurers.

Unless they want to avoid the whole issue.

[eldudereno]

mybrainhurts said:

You wouldn't get cash from them, you'd get cash from their insurers.

I did know that.

[mybrainhurts]

eldudereno said:

mybrainhurts said:

You wouldn't get cash from them, you'd get cash from their insurers.

I did know that.

Thought you were after revenge for the redundancy.

[530dTPhil]

Take a step back from the accident and look at the redundancy. There is a correct process to follow for redundancy selection which should be explained to you at each stage. You should have the opportuntiy to challenge the selection process and the scoring criteria before the marking is undertaken. Once the scoring for each employee is completed, you are then entitled to a copy of your score sheet. You are also entitled to see the scores for the rest of the employees in the selection pool, although these will be anonymous so that you cannot identify individual scores.
You have made it sound as if you were arbitrarily selected with no consultation. If this is the case, you are entitled to challenge the process.

[eldudereno]

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately there was no selection process as there would be when deciding which individual would be made redundant from a group of people with the same job title. Apart from the one R&D Engineer, which is myself, the only other person left in the department is the R+D Manager, they have targeted the one position so I am not competing with anyone else with regards to assessment etc. Apart from the first meeting that I had with the HR boss etc telling me that I was to be made redundant, there has only been one consultation meeting so far where I just basically explained my usefulness etc to the business.

[telecat]

Make sure you see at least your GP with this as well. Many people walk around for weeks thinking the pain will disappear then discover a cracked vertebra.

[eldudereno]

telecat said:

Make sure you see at least your GP with this as well. Many people walk around for weeks thinking the pain will disappear then discover a cracked vertebra.

Thanks for that.

Visited my gp this afternoon, she checked me out so it's now been recorded etc.
Still got a bit of pain and stiffness there but it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Should be getting some claim forms through the door tomorrow and I understand that part of the claim will dictate that the claim could be re-opened in the future if I have any further problems. May as well try to get as much cash as possible even if it's just a few hundred quid to soften my redundancy a little. My company employs many thousands of people worldwide so stuff them, it's just chicken feed to them!!!

[Davel]

I wonder if they might read this thread?

Personally, I'd only claim for a genuine injury rather than use it as a vehicle to get a little extra cash.

Anyway, hope it gets better quickly and you find another job very soon...