Limit for Claim on Accident / Employee Redundancy if Making a Claim

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MsGinger

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I would appreciate if anyone can help with two questions on the following scenario:

We have received a solicitor’s letter from an employee, which states that he wishes to pursue the company for personal injuries as a result of an accident which occurred in 2006.

According to the company health & safety records, there was an accident on the same date in 2005, but we have no record of an accident/incident in 2006 involving this person.

The employee in question received training pertaining to the task involved approximately 8 weeks prior to the accident occurring.

Question 1
Is there a limit on the timeframe during which an employee can submit a claim for personal injury after an accident?

Question 2
We are making a number of employees redundant. If this employee is within the timeframe to make a claim against the company, can the company make him redundant? This is not a knee-jerk reaction to the letter, he would have been made redundant anyway – in fact we are wondering if this is the reason for the timing of the letter.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ginger
 
Re: Question 1

From Citizens Information.

"Under the Civil Liabilities and Courts Act 2004 the time-limit for claims for compensation is two years from the date of the accident. Even so, it is very important that you notify the person you hold responsible for your injury within two months of the accident. While it may not effect your application to the PIAB, it may effect your case later if you have to go to court."

Someone more informed than me may be able to answer your second question.
 
Thanks Dachshund, the employee definitely didn't advise the company that he held them responsible for the accident, this is the first we have heard of it.

Anyone have any ideas on question two?
 
If you make him redundant now, he may also bring an unfair dismissals case claiming you are only doing it because he is now claiming.
 
Is this the case even though we will have shed about 2/3 of our workforce by July and his skills are no longer required? I could understand it if we were singling him out but that is not what is happening.
 
He could still do it, but I am not saying he would win. It would be used as leverage with his compo claim.
You would be put to the expense of defending his unfair dismissal claim which you cannot recover your legal costs even if you win.
 
As long as you are happy that you can show you used the same selection criteria for his redundancy as for other people I would go ahead with his redundancy. ( e.g. if other people are being left go on a LIFO basis then do the same in his section)
You won't want him there anyway while a case is ongoing.
He sounds like a chancer who suddenly realises that his case (from 2005) is out of time and is claiming it happened in 2006. Maybe he got wind of the redundancies coming.
I would hardball this one.
 
aidan119 said:
As long as you are happy that you can show you used the same selection criteria for his redundancy as for other people I would go ahead with his redundancy. ( e.g. if other people are being left go on a LIFO basis then do the same in his section)
You won't want him there anyway while a case is ongoing.
He sounds like a chancer who suddenly realises that his case (from 2005) is out of time and is claiming it happened in 2006. Maybe he got wind of the redundancies coming.
I would hardball this one.
Click to expand...

God advice, I agree.
 
Thanks for all the advice and info on this. Last week I had a trawl through all health & safety & attendance sheets and the employee worked 3 x 6 day weeks in the weeks following the date in 2006, which he would not have been able to do if he was injured, so it looks like our recorded date in 2005 is correct and he is out of date to make a claim on that.

We will go ahead with the redundancy in the next month or so, but we will ensure that all the criteria specifed above e.g. LIFO etc are adhered to.

Thanks,
Ginger
 
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