Health & Safety
Accidents at Work: the diagnosis
It has been known for a very long time that some occupations imply risk and cause injury to workers.
Information on Injuries at Work
Some of this may be attributable to the imperfections in medical knowledge but mostly it is a failure to think with clarity. There is room for improvement on the part of the medical profession in ascribing causes to illness and death, which do not, in effect, do more than describe symptoms rather than pinpoint causes.
Injuries at Work and Social Class
What does not go out of date is an underlying feature of employment; the incidence of injury in work and its relationship with occupation and, therefore, social class.
Independent Contractors
This means that confusion as to who is or is not an employee need not deprive an injured person from securing proper compensation when injured in a workplace.
Compensation Culture
The Irish State has a very poor record in defending the constitutional right to compensation for personal injury.
Hindsight again, Minister?
The musings by the Director of Public Prosecutions as reported HERE warrant a book written on them. He has pointed to the need for, and social value of whistleblowers. This being a blog, a posting will have to suffice. His musings were followed by a proposal from the Minister for Justice, the terms of which are currently obscure. Assuming that there is no co-ordination between the Minister for Justice and the DPP, and assuming them to be decent, well-meaning office […]
Strict Liability?
Many claims against employers can and will fail when the claim is made as one of negligence by the employer. However, because of the multitude of duties imposed on employers by statute, it is common for the employer to be found liable to the employee for an injury even where the employer has not been “at fault” (meaning, here, “negligent”).
Human Rights
n Guerra v Italy (1998) 26 EHRR 357, toxic emissions from a factory injured many nearby residents and killed some. The ECtHR found that the absence of information on the effects of living near the factory breached the Applicants’ right to respect for home under Article 8 of the Convention.
A Money Furnace
The government seems to have a furnace somewhere to dispose of old banknotes, such is their fondness, to the point of habit, for burning public funds.
Shake, Rattle & Roll
Vibration would not be readily seen, by workers, as a danger to health in the workplace. It is, and the injury can be serious.