What happens when you suffer a slip-and-fall at work?

When you picture a slip-and-fall at your work, you may imagine a customer falling as they rush around with a shopping cart or a visitor losing their traction in an icy parking lot. Some of your job responsibilities may specifically include facility maintenance to avoid such scenarios.

Your role at the company may involve cleaning or repairing facilities so that visitors or other workers don’t get hurt. Many employees fail to realize that they might be the ones to slip on a puddle and fall while in the middle of their shift, possibly getting seriously hurt in the process.

Slip-and-fall scenarios on the job can be a result of understaffing or dress codes that don’t allow for appropriately protective footwear. They could also be fluke accidents that occur because a worker must rush due to unusual circumstances. Do you have any rights after a slip-and-fall at work?

If you get hurt, you may get benefits

Despite people thinking of slip-and-fall situations as comedic, they are a leading cause of serious work injuries in the United States. A worker who loses their balance and falls could break a bone, leaving them out of work for several months. They may require workers’ compensation benefits to replace their lost wages and cover the cost of their medical care.

A worker who falls could also suffer a head injury. Traumatic brain injuries suffered in a fall could force someone to leave their employment permanently and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in trauma care. When the injury occurs on the job, a worker can typically anticipate being able to claim workers’ compensation coverage.

Reporting is crucial for benefits

If you hope to secure workers’ compensation coverage after falling on the job, you need to communicate with your supervisor about what happened. Filing an incident report as quickly as possible will be important if you hope to secure workers’ compensation benefits later. You will also need to follow the right procedures when seeking medical care, including following through with all medical recommendations to protect your eligibility for benefits.

Realizing that a slip and fall gives you a right to make a claim could help you when coping with unexpected work injuries.