In order to be able to avoid, as far as possible, injuries to workers [and the risk of work accident compensation claim] and comply with the current health and safety legislation, the hazards that can cause the accidents and that in turn cause the injuries need to be ‘managed’ out of the working environment by the employer of an equine establishment using a ‘safety management system’. Those persons must, in the words of Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974: ‘…ensure so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all employees’.
Now, equine establishments are sometimes not run on normal business lines and often involve family and friends and are frequented by people who are just there to hire out horses or ride their own liveried mounts, but they too are protected by health and safety law. Section 3 of that same Act extends the employer’s duty of care to people who they don’t employ but who they must not expose ‘to risks to their health safety’. As some people running livery stables or riding establishments are not the employer of those who work there, the Act specifies in Section 4 that these non-employers also have a duty of care to ‘take reasonable measures to ensure the health and safety of those who are not their employees’.
On a practical level complying with this legislation and making effective use of a safety management system boils down to keeping employees and visitors to the riding establishment safe by:
• Identifying the hazards.
• Assessing how seriously someone could be injured by each hazard.
• Assessing how likely people are to be injured.
• Planning how to prevent the injuries – can this easily be achieved?
• Considering how expensive or readily available the necessary safeguards will be.
Many of the above steps are completed by undertaking risk assessments which will determine the level of risk associated with each potentially hazardous process. The law uses the concept of gross disproportionality to determine whether or not an employer is required to remove or ameliorate a workplace hazard. In essence, the costs of addressing the hazard must grossly outweigh the risk before an employer can decide to not to address that risk without fear of being in breach of their legal health and safety obligations to his employees.
If you have suffered an accident at work in connection with horses, and you’re thinking of a compensation claim. Contact our specialist personal injury solicitors who can advise you if you have a claim, and if so advise you how to claim compensation for a work injury.
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