The relationship between you and your employer should be a mutually beneficial one. It is your duty stay committed to your work, carry it out with due diligence and perform all your duties with the interest of your employer first. In exchange for your services, the employer must look after your welfare through fair remuneration, growth opportunities and rewards among other things. The employer should also provide a safe working environment to prevent injuries in the course and scope of your work. In case of an injury you can sue your employer for compensation, but beware the law affords them the following defences against your claims:

The Fellow Servant Doctrine

The law requires an employer to provide you with reliable co-worker assistance. The people you work with must be fit, suitable, well trained and certified to work with. Based on this, the law provides that your employer may not be held liable in a case where your fellow employee caused the injury partly or in whole. This ensures that your peers exercise due care and diligence when carrying out their duties instead of blaming the employer for everything that goes wrong in the workplace.

The Doctrine of Contributory Negligence

Just as the name suggests, contributory negligence arises when the consequences of a negligent act cannot be blamed on one person in particular. For instance, employers provide safe tools, personal protective equipment and adequate warnings of any impending dangers in the workplace. Take a case where you decide to carry out some maintenance on a conveyor belt system using improvised tools and without wearing the right personal protective equipment. If you suffer an injury, then your employer could be held harmless because the immediate cause of the injury was caused by your lack of attention to the appropriate equipment needed for the job. Despite the risks involved when working with conveyor belts, your employer cannot be blamed entirely for all the negligence.

The Assumption of Risk

Sometimes, you cannot claim for compensation from your employer if you signed up to the risks of the job voluntarily. Take the case of an amateur wrestling federation you have just joined to kick-start a wrestling career. If you suffer a broken arm in the course of a match, then you cannot claim compensation from your employer because such injuries are commensurate with the risk involved in amateur wrestling. Your employer will attend to you based on the health benefits provided in your contract of employment.