Do we really want to end up like America (Compensation culture)

Member Name: Mick-Gray

Product:	Compensation culture
Date:	10/05/01 (49 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: See oppinion

Disadvantages: We end up like America

There are a good many situations where to claim compensation from the person or company directly responsible for a situation is right and proper. There are also many situations where I believe it has got totally out of hand.

Lets start with the police officer who enrols, is trained and has every idea of the things he is likely to face as part of his job. The police force will have provided him with safety training, issued him with all the safety equipment that they can. Yet during the course of doing his job which has been explained in every detail, he encounters a very unpleasant sight of perhaps a bad road accident or a murder this is then open house for a compensation claim for stress or depression. Now is this the fault of the police force did the police force create the road accident or commit the murder, of course not. Why then should they be the ones paying compensation. If compensation in this instance has to be paid and I don’t believe it should, then why not claim against the person who caused the accident or who committed the murder, surely they will have property or insurance that compensation could be paid from. At least the people responsible for the officer’s condition would be paying up and not the police force who have no control over the situation. This would also apply to a fireman who surely knows the dangers and horrors of the job before he is actually asked to go and do it. Again he will have received all the training and equipment and be fully aware of what awaits him.

The same applies to sexual or racial harassment surely the person or persons causing the harassment should be the ones paying the compensation not the people that they work for. Why should they be held responsible for the actions of others when these actions are taken without their knowledge and when they are usually out of earshot of those in authority? I’m not questioning that it happens just who is responsible for the compensation if it mus
t be paid.

The criminal injuries board is another case in question. I have no problem with victims of crime receiving some sort of payout from the government fund but it was not the government who caused the injury it was the criminal and if he is caught all possessions should be subject to confiscation and paid to the victim until they have received what they deserve with the injuries board making up the difference if necessary.

I know we have had some really bad cases of medical negligence recently and many peoples lives have suffered because of it, but does any body actually sue the person who has been negligent no they sue the hospital who in all fairness are trying to do there best with what they have. The doctor in question may lose his job he may even be struck off the register but it is more likely as we saw recently in the case of Harold Shipton he will quietly move on somewhere else still in possession of his house, car and bank balance while the N.H.S is the one that is sued and has to pick up the bill.

You have cases of people at work who have had correct instructions on what they must or must not do Have had any safety training that is necessary and yet will still attempt to work off of a ladder knowing full well that they should be on a safe platform, but no, for the sake of speed they do it their way and when they fall expect to claim for injury from their employer. The employer is then held responsible for lack of supervision. Have we really got to hold everybody’s hand to make sure that they don’t do what they have been told or trained not to do.
The newest excuse for sickness and probably the next bandwagon to jump on for a claim is sick building syndrome it certainly makes me sick.


Then we have the total frauds the back pain brigade who have quite rightly read that back pain cannot be detected so tell their employer they must have lifted something awkwardly and at best slide of for a few d
ays or at worst make a claim.

The whiplash claimers in car accidents again cannot except in extreme cases be detected medically

The new one is repetitive strain, whilst I cannot deny this exists (Not being a medical person) it is again widely open to abuse as it cannot be defiantly diagnosed in many cases.

I have worked alongside two such frauds one of which received a massive payout. He was a young man of 19 who had a promising football career. He played Sunday football but was due for a trial with one of the lower division clubs. In his last Sunday game he was subject to a bad tackle, which completely wrecked his knee and ended his chances of pro football. We were at the time working in a large factory where he had remembered a patch of oil on the floor by one of the machines. He carefully limped into work on the Monday morning and deliberately slipped on the oil. He then proceeded to sue the company for his injuries and the claim took into account his possible loss of earnings from his potential football career. The claim was successful and the firm reprimanded for its lack of safety in the workplace. They are still under the impression that the injury was caused due to the oil.

The second fraud I have worked alongside was not so outrageous but never the less still a fraud. On a particular day we had a lot of equipment to move and this particular chap who was huge was asked to help. The next day he informed the company that he had hurt his back during the lifting and had a doctors certificate for two weeks. The company thinking he had injured himself doing their work paid him in full for his two weeks sick. When he came back he handed in his notice saying he had been offered a job by his brother painting and decorating. Yes he had injured his back as the certificate had said, but not working with us. He had fallen off of a ladder whilst moonlighting for his brother who had now got enough work to offer him a full time job, but h
e kept quite about this to the company.

This is the way that things are now going in this country just like America. If something unfortunate happens to us we are now all becoming of the opinion that it must be somebody else’s fault and not our own and how can we get compensation for it.

We had the female soldiers who knew it was against regulations to get pregnant when they joined. Having disregarded the regulations they were dismissed from the service, as they knew that the regulations said that they would be. Yet they claimed sexual discrimination and the Army (you and me really} had to pay out.

Unfortunately we are fast becoming a nation looking to blame others for our problems and then expecting to cash in on them. Of course the No win no fee merchants have made the situation even worse, While I think that the system of no win no fee is a good one in genuine circumstances the advertising should not be allowed to let people believe that they are due money for tripping over their own shoelaces (This is not a joke an Athlete in America actually sued a Sports shoe company because his laces came undone and tripped him up) It will end up with professional people having to take out enormous indemnity polices to cover the claims that may be made against them for doing their job, and who pays for this in the long run The consumer or taxpayer.

Did the first word war veterans who suffered unspeakable horrors expect compensation? No all they expected was to be looked after and they didn’t even get that. The Second World War was also filled with horrors bur nobody claimed compensation for mental stress they all got on with their lives. If we trip over a paving stone that hasn’t been spotted by the council we expect them to compensate us for not looking where we were walking. Would we expect to claim if we tripped over a lump of stone on a footpath in the country of course not we would kick ourselves for not looking where
we were going. Of course if the slab has been reported and not repaired within a reasonable space of time then that is a different matter somebody has been negligent but we can go on and on until we all have to be wrapped in cotton wool before we leave home.

Lets not deny the genuine victims of blatant negligence but we used to pride ourselves on being tough and resilient, before long we will all have to have our own safety adviser to go out with us wherever we go and all walk around looking like American footballers.

Mick Gray

Summary: This compensation culture has gone mad