When are employers liable if a worker gets assaulted at work?

Workers must feel protected at all costs during their jobs. There is a common misconception that
some employees assume that they will be working in environments that are generally reputed to
be riskier than others, such as clubs, bars, prisons, and even psychiatric wards, to name a few.
Nevertheless, everyone should keep in mind that this reality doesn’t spare any business or
organization from focusing their attention and efforts on keeping staff safe.

It would be best to keep your guard up, but employers aren’t only morally tied to doing the same.
The law obligates employers to put specific measures in place depending on the industry, as well
as general safety requirements that apply to all employees and, by case, third parties.

Should you have drawn the short straw and suffered an assault or injury on the job that could’ve
been prevented were your employer respecting their duty of care, then you must learn a few
things about how you can demonstrate their fault and your innocence. Here’s the expert
lowdown you need, so we encourage you to keep reading!

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What is your employer obligated to do to keep you safe?

Every country across the world treats employers’ responsibility towards maintaining the
workplace safe for employees differently, depending on factors like economic and social ones.
The UK, protecting over 33 million employees, out of which a few million are foreign-born
workers, has tabled duties found in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Here are a few
critical duties employers must adhere to in order to maintain their workspaces safe for
employees:

• Employers are obliged to carry out frequent risk assessments to discover all the possible workplace threats that could compromise workers’ well-being, including assaults, physical violence, and other work-related aggression types.
• Employers must carry through the adequate measures to reduce or remove any spotted risk, including offering specific training, introducing security standards, setting up comprehensible procedures and policies, and promoting dignity and respect within teams.
• Employers must set up efficient reporting systems that encourage workers to confidently draw attention to irregularities, misdoings, assaults, and other disturbing instances. On top of that, enabling them to investigate reports timely and get involved in solving the signalled anomalies can be required.
• Employees must be offered comprehensive information about matters like the risks and responsibilities associated with their jobs and guidance on how to overcome those perils and potential accidents.
• Adequate assistance and support must be provided to unfortunate employees who incurred injuries due to accidents, assaults, fights, and other similar irregularities should they encounter them. The type of support varies from situation to situation but generally includes access to medical treatments and counselling services, as well as accommodation throughout the victim’s recovery journey.

What counts as assault at work?

To clear up any confusion regarding what is defined as workplace assault and what’s not, we’re
briefly outlining the most common instances of violence and aggression at work:

• Instances when a worker deals with threats, violence, verbal and emotional abuse at work
• Threats of physical violence
• Intimidation
• Harassment
• Bullying
• Homicide, etc.

Many events may pass as unfortunate coincidences of attitude clashes when action must literally
be taken to make justice. Examples include but are not limited to physical attacks, fights,
aggressive behaviour, or anything that threatens employees’ dignity, safety, peace, and well-
being at work.

When the employer is declared blameless

Of course, there are instances when employers are exonerated of any wrongdoing, irrespective of
their actual liability. Employees are held responsible when they’re found guilty of breaking
duties of care, including those enumerated above. However, suppose your upper management
has ensured the risks were minimized to the least possible degree through upgraded equipment,

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), proper training, and so on. In that case, they may be clear
of blame in your eyes. The instances where they’ve ensured frequent conduction of risk
assessments, the needed staffing levels, and so on, and no grounds can demonstrate their
culpability, are common, leaving many employees perplexed about what they should do next.

The first thing you need to do in any such unfortunate situation is to reach out to a legal lawyer
to have them determine whether you can claim against them or not, as well as weigh the odds of
winning the case. Suppose you’re confused or don’t know where to pick up, head to high
authority destinations and get some of your most pressing questions answered. Many wonder
how much compensation they could get if they claim against their employees successfully. Still,
you can take the guesswork out of the equation by using
www.compensationcalculatoruk.co.uk/criminal-injuries-compensation-calculator, whether you’re simulating or registering real-life details.

How much compensation, though?

As stated, the amount received as compensation varies depending on the accident’s context and
severity, as well as the aftermaths involved. The losses are taken into account when calculating
the compensation sum range from the time you take off work, care expenditure, medical
treatment expenses, and transportation recovery expenses, to name a few.

Assault-based compensations generally get categorized into the following two:

• Special damages compensate assault-caused quantifiable financial losses, including rehabilitation expenses, medical costs, and loss of earnings or of future earning capacity, among others.
• General damages pay for impalpable hardships like pain, suffering, and how the events impacted your overall life quality.

What is vicarious liability?

To increase your knowledge of criminal injuries, we should examine the most common types of
liabilities that emerge when a party, i.e., an employer, is found at fault for being reckless or
unlawful towards employees. In most instances, employers are answerable for their employees’
poor and unjust behaviours in the workplace through “vicarious liability.”

As expected, some instances can make exceptions from the case, such as when employment
cannot be in any way responsible for the assaulter’s wrongdoing. However, these instances aren’t
that common when assaults and aggressions occur in the workplace.

As you can see, both employees and employers have their responsibilities when it comes to
one's integrity, dignity, safety, and well-being. If your employee has broken their duty of
care, you're encouraged to take immediate action and make justice for yourself!

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