Understanding Workplace Negligence

Pick a woman detecting a headache and not feeling well

Workplace negligence occurs when actions by an employer lead to employee or customer injury or loss, including theft, illness, injury, or death.

Workplace negligence is a legal term to describe actions by employers that lead to property damage, loss, theft, illness, injury, or wrongful death. Here are a few examples of scenarios that would constitute for negligence. Being informed about this legal issue can help employees protect themselves if they experience any of the effects.

Hiring and Retention

If a company does not perform due diligence when hiring employees, it’s an issue of negligence when it leads to problems for customers or other employees. One example would be a situation in which one worker is assaulted by another, and it turns out the perpetrator has a history of violent behavior that would have been uncovered had the company conducted a criminal background check before employment. Negligent retention occurs when a company fails to reassign, retrain, or dismiss a problematic employee.

Negligent Training and Supervision

This happens when a business fails to properly train employees on safety issues and the repercussions of behavioral problems such as sexual harassment, leading to injury or legal issues. Also, companies must reasonably supervise and control the actions of workers when they are on the clock.

Lack of Security

This issue may occur if a company doesn’t properly destroy classified employee or client information, and this breach in security leads to incidents of identity theft. Businesses are liable for protecting data entrusted to them by their employees and customers.

Premises and Products Liability

This type of workplace negligence occurs when a business fails to keep employees and customers safe. For example, the most common type of premises liability is the slip-and-fall case, in which a person can sue for damages once injuries sustained in a fall caused by a missing railing or wet floor. Keep in mind that not all accidents constitute as negligence–a business would not be liable for the situations described above if precautions such as safety tape or a wet floor sign are taken.

Product liability occurs when an aspect of a product, such as research, design, production, advertising, or packaging, causes injury.

If you’ve experienced one of the scenarios described above, our attorneys can help determine whether you have a case for damages.