Employers have a duty to keep their employees safe at work. If an employer cannot provide a safe workplace, it must make certain modifications that make work less dangerous. With the large number of things that could injure an employee on a ship, maritime law allows injured workers an opportunity to receive compensation from an employer who fails to take proper safety precautions.
Unfortunately for one Louisiana employee, his employer failed to put a skid-proof lining on the deck of a ship, according to the employee’s recent filings in his personal injury lawsuit. The man was working on a ship when he fell on the slippery deck and seriously injured his shoulder. The worker claims that if his employer had incorporated some slip prevention measures on the deck, he would not have fallen and injured himself.
According to The Louisiana Record, the employee has filed a personal injury lawsuit alleging that the employer also failed to properly maintain the ship’s deck and that there were design defects with the ship that led to his fall. His lawsuit, which falls under maritime law, also claims that the employer should have warned the employee about the dangerous nature of the deck.
All employees, whether they are working on land or at sea, have the right to be safe from workplace injuries. Although some of the responsibility falls on the worker to ensure his or her own safety, it is ultimately up to the employer to ensure that workers can perform their duties safely in the premises provided. If they cannot, the employer needs to enact safety measures that will protect an employee from injury.
Source: The Louisiana Record, “Worker files personal injury lawsuit against company for not making deck skid proof,” Michelle Keahey, Dec. 19, 2011
