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28 July 2005 - The Compensation Myth Report
by TUC
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The Trades Union Congress (TUC) have published a 10 point
"Compensation Myth" report which rejects reports implying that compensation
payouts within the UK are spiralling out of control.
The TUC's findings are, that civil compensation cases involving
claims against employers has fallen within the UK on a year by year basis over
the past 5 years.
The 10 point myths highlighted and explained within the report
are as follows:
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Compensation cases are spiralling out of control.
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Workers are too ready to claim compensation.
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Compensation payments are too high.
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UK is heading for US-style compensation system.
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Unfair to insurance companies who have to pay out for diseases
where they were not aware of risks, such as asbestos-related illnesses.
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Many cases would not be taken if Unions did not encourage
members to claim.
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Employers Liability Insurance is just another burden on
businesses.
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Employers find difficulty in getting Employers Liability
Insurance.
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Lawyers prone to dragging these cases on unnecessarily, in order
to raise costs.
Mr. Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary said:
"All the time we hear that the UK is in the grip of a runaway
compensation culture and that we are moving ever closer to a US-style
‘sue-first-ask-questions later’ system. The harsh reality for thousands of ill
and injured workers is very different with most getting little if anything when
things go wrong at work as a result of their employers’ negligence.
"If insurance premiums more closely reflected an employer’s
health and safety record, with those happy to put their employees at risk paying
more and those with safer workplaces paying less, we might start to see an
improvement in the UK’s poor accident and illness statistics. Cutting our
compensation bill is easy, but first UK bosses have to get serious about
improving health and safety."
The Compensation Myth report suggests three ways in which the
UK's compensation bill could be cut as follows:
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Good health and safety practices should be rewarded, where
companies with poor accident and injury records pay higher insurance premiums.
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When someone is made ill or injured at work, the priority should
be to allow the individual access to proper rehabilitation, greatly increasing
the chances that they will make a full or early recovery.
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Insurance companies should be more ready to admit liability
earlier on to avoid running up costly medical and legal bills.
The pdf file containing the full report can be accessed by
clicking the following:
The Compensation Myth
Article by Alexandra Johnston
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