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The amount of UK worker compensation you are entitled to claim for an accident at work involving the use of dangerous machinery
Find out why machinery in the workplace is dangerous, the type of injury you are likely to suffer by using dangerous machinery together with the amount of worker compensation you are likely to receive in the UK.
What is a dangerous machine and how should an employer ensure your safety when using it?
Machines by their very nature are dangerous. They will often have many moving parts, which can cause injury if a part of your body becomes caught or trapped.
An employer is required by UK law to take measures that ensure that any part of your body is kept away from the dangerous part of a machine.
If the machine is a large one then your safety can be ensured by erecting a barrier around it or, for smaller machines, a guard can be fixed over the dangerous part.
What is the most common type of injury you can receive from using dangerous machinery?
When you use a machine at work your hands are the part of your body that are most at risk - often your job will involve feeding some object into a moving part of a machine.
The injury to your hand will depend on the machine, but is most likely to involve a crushing injury or part of your hand being severed.
For example
You work with a plastic pipe cutting machine and your employer warned you that if you put your hand into the machine you will receive an injury. After working on the machine for several months your hand slips into the machine causing a finger to be severed.
You were using clearly dangerous machinery and a warning was not sufficient to prevent injury to your hands as human error can easily occur.
Had your employer fitted an inexpensive guard to the machine your hand injury could have been prevented.
How much worker compensation is your hand injury likely to be worth?
The hand has many different bones and there are a number of different types of injury that can be sustained, but a rough guideline in 2007 of the worker compensation you can expect to receive for some common injuries include:
1. Simple fracture of thumb or one finger with quick recovery: Up to £2800
2. Loss of little finger: Up to £7000
3. Loss of middle finger: Up to £9000
4. Loss of index finger: Up to £10,800
5. Loss of thumb: Up to £30,000
6. Minor crush injury to hand
With recovery in a few months: £500 - £2500
7. Crush injury to hand
More serious injury when surgery was necessary and your hand was left with a small permanent disability: £4000 - £7500
You have learned what a dangerous machine at work is, how your employer should ensure your safety, the types of injury you can receive and the amount of worker compensation you can claim for the most common injuries.
You should now be in a position to feel confident to obtain legal advice about making your compensation claim, so I recommend you:
Click here to see how to choose the best personal injury lawyer to make your compensation claim
