International Workers Memorial Day: Why health and safety matters

International Workers Memorial Day is held today (28 April) every year, with organisations throughout the UK and across the world holding events to mark the day, which remembers individuals killed at work and campaigns for better health and safety to protect people at work today.

“Good health and safety for all workers whoever they are.”

Each year’s International Workers Memorial Day has a theme, and this year it is “Good health and safety for all workers whoever they are.”

Digby Brown know why proper, robust health and safety in the workplace really matters because we see the consequences for workers when it isn’t in place.

Our Solicitors help thousands of people across Scotland every year who have suffered injuries and losses just by going to work. No-one should be in that position.

Why Health and Safety matters – a Digby Brown client story

A recent case in Fife highlights this issue. Digby Brown are representing a man who suffered serious injuries while working at a height in Fife because proper health and safety measures, which should have been standard practice, were not in place to protect him.

The incident left our client with life-changing injuries, including multiple fractures to his right shoulder and left knee and a broken left wrist. 

At a hearing in Kirkcaldy sheriff court, our client’s employers admitted health and safety failings in not ensuring that the work he was asked to do was properly and safely planned and carried out. The organisation was fined £7,000. 

Digby Brown’s specialist personal injury solicitors are pursuing compensation for his injuries and losses. 

Our client’s story was reported in The Courier newspaper on Friday April 28th.

Enforcement and prosecution of health and safety failings

We know that most employers act responsibility but a safe working environment is something to which everyone is entitled to, no matter where they are and who they work for.

Statistics on workplace injuries and fatalities over the last few decades make it clear that active enforcement of health and safety responsibilities, the prosecution of offending companies and the ability for those injured at work to bring civil compensation claims has driven improvements in workplace safety standards.

International Workers Memorial Day this week is an opportunity to highlight the fact that too many people are still exposed to unacceptable risks while going about their jobs. This is not an issue which will go away. 

Digby Brown are not only committed to providing those injured at work with legal help and representation but to continuing to raise awareness of this issue so that work is safer for all of us.