Examples Of Negligence In The Workplace
Negligence is a common civil law case that occurs in many workplaces. “Negligence is a failure to take reasonable care to avoid causing injury or loss to another person.” (Legal services commission of SA, 2013) These laws creating equality for people done wrong off. Samuel Johnson quoted, “He who thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor” This quote points out that you might as well be poor if you think you cannot look after people and get away with it. This is a growing concern among many workplaces.
Negligence requires 3 elements to be proven: duty of care, a breach of this duty and damages occurring because of it. (Cornell Law school, N/A) Understanding how this works is the best way to not fall victim to this act.
To show how negligence works I will refer to this example. John a painter had been hired to paint the outside of a building. During this job, he was hit by a falling plank which fell from a supporting trestle. It was knocked by Peter his co-worker who was acting careless. He was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital. He has sued peter, for not following safety protocols by misbehaving on the work site. This cost John medical fees and missing 3 days of work.
Figure 1:Workplace injuries …show more content…
A duty of care is owed by co-workers to make sure the site is safe for them and other colleagues. The reason for this duty of care being applicable is because the legal neighbour principle; which states: if there is proximity and reasonable foreseeability then there is a duty of care applied. There are 3 types of proximity: Physical, circumstantial and causal. (Hobart legal org, 2013) with the proximity of this job being circumstantial and there being reasonable foreseeability that such event of a plank falling could easily occur on a job like this if someone is acting carelessly. This is similar to Strachan v. McPhee & Ors [2010] with the plaintiff steeping in a hole left unsafe on the property, (Queensland,
Negligence requires 3 elements to be proven: duty of care, a breach of this duty and damages occurring because of it. (Cornell Law school, N/A) Understanding how this works is the best way to not fall victim to this act.
To show how negligence works I will refer to this example. John a painter had been hired to paint the outside of a building. During this job, he was hit by a falling plank which fell from a supporting trestle. It was knocked by Peter his co-worker who was acting careless. He was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital. He has sued peter, for not following safety protocols by misbehaving on the work site. This cost John medical fees and missing 3 days of work.
Figure 1:Workplace injuries …show more content…
A duty of care is owed by co-workers to make sure the site is safe for them and other colleagues. The reason for this duty of care being applicable is because the legal neighbour principle; which states: if there is proximity and reasonable foreseeability then there is a duty of care applied. There are 3 types of proximity: Physical, circumstantial and causal. (Hobart legal org, 2013) with the proximity of this job being circumstantial and there being reasonable foreseeability that such event of a plank falling could easily occur on a job like this if someone is acting carelessly. This is similar to Strachan v. McPhee & Ors [2010] with the plaintiff steeping in a hole left unsafe on the property, (Queensland,