Navigating Employer Liabilities: How Should We Handle On-Site Accidents Legally?

Good Afternoon Seniors, I need your guidance in a case. An employee met with an accident while working on-site due to his own negligence of safety parameters as trained to him from time to time. The employee is not covered in the ESIC scheme but is covered under EC. He has fractures and a gap between bones. The treatment is costly, and he will definitely need 2-3 months to return to work.

Employer Liabilities in Workplace Accidents

In this entire case, as per the law, what are the liabilities of the employer towards the employee and their dependents? Kindly guide.

On a humane level, the company has helped him with his treatment, but we need to know within legal parameters what an employer should do.

No question of showing just humanitarian consideration to an employee covered under the Employees' Compensation Act, 1923 when he gets injured in an employment accident. The employer is legally liable under the Act to bear the entire medical expenses and pay him compensation depending on the extent of consequential loss of earning capacity suffered by the employee.

Liability in Cases of Employee Negligence

It is mentioned that an accident occurred while working on-site due to the workman's own negligence of safety parameters as trained to him from time to time. As regards accidents occurring due to negligence, the exemption from liability occurs only when there is willful disobedience of the order expressly given or to a rule expressly framed for the purpose of safety, or when it is caused by willful removal or disregard of any safety guard or other device which he knew to have been provided for the purpose of securing safety (Section 3 (b) (ii) & (iii) refers). Unless you have a case as per the above requirements, the liability attaches as pointed out by Umakanthan Sir.

Please do not try to pass on the responsibility to the employee, lest you be prosecuted. As rightly mentioned by the learned members earlier, the injury having occurred during and in the course of employment puts the responsibility squarely on the employer [exception has to be proved by the employer and not the other way around]. Also, one fails to understand why no insurance is covered, as these issues are bound to happen no matter what sort of training and safety measures are imparted and put in place. Ensure that proper insurance policies are covered in the future to avoid stress and economic burden, and also to help the employees in case of any emergencies.

Thanks and Regards

Safety Incident and Employer Liability

First of all, thank you for your valuable feedback. Safety equipment has been provided. The kind of accident that took place can only happen in conditions of negligence of safety rules. All our safety engineers are unable to understand how this incident took place. The employee was injured in an area where he was not supposed to enter without turning off the equipment/machines, which caused the injury. Additionally, he was not wearing the safety equipment provided to him. Employee negligence can be proven in a second by an expert in our industry.

Instead of taking strict action to prevent such incidents in the future by any other employee, we are being asked to pay the entire payment. Why is there nothing for the employer to take a stand for the right thing? Is the employer supposed to pay a large amount for the negligent behavior of the employee? That's unfair for the poor employer! It doesn't matter how much they comply with the law rules; all laws are favoring the employee.

Hi, I just want to know if a field worker meets with an accident and is not in a condition to go to the ESI office. The employer denied paying him the salary for the months he was on leave. Also, the employer is not ready to cover his medical expenses. I just want to highlight that the employee does not have any photos of where the accident happened, nor an FIR.

Can you please suggest what is the appropriate action he can take?