Normally I watch those injury lawyers adverts with revulsion, and wonder when the compensation culture took over from the concept of "bad luck"...
But, I've been puzzling over this hypothetical situation and would be interested to hear what others have to say.
Should Person A be compensated in order to hire in contractors to continue his work? If so, should that compensation come from Person B or the employer?
Or, should the employer offer additional paid time off once Person A has recovered, in order to replace the lost weekends and evenings he would have had for his DIY? Should that time off be taken from Person B's allowance?
Or, should Person A just shrug his shoulders and put it down to bad luck?
Should Person B be subject to a disciplinary, if he was just larking about and didn't deliberately injur Person A?
Lastly, what if this injury turns out to be permanent, and has an effect on Person A's quality of life (unable to do anymore DIY forever, can't do any sports, constantly in pain etc)
But, I've been puzzling over this hypothetical situation and would be interested to hear what others have to say.
Person A is doing his job one day, when his colleague, Person B, does something stupid that results in injury to Person A. For example, he pulls his chair out whilst he's sitting down, or sticks his foot out to trip him up, and Person A ends up with a back injury.
Person A is laid up for a couple of weeks, and gets full pay from the employer during his convalescence.
However... Person A has a hobby: DIY. Person A is in the middle of doing up a house but due to his injury is unable to continue DIY for several months and will thus be living in a building site (along with his family) for months longer than he would have been without the injury.
What is the just outcome?
Should Person A be compensated in order to hire in contractors to continue his work? If so, should that compensation come from Person B or the employer?
Or, should the employer offer additional paid time off once Person A has recovered, in order to replace the lost weekends and evenings he would have had for his DIY? Should that time off be taken from Person B's allowance?
Or, should Person A just shrug his shoulders and put it down to bad luck?
Should Person B be subject to a disciplinary, if he was just larking about and didn't deliberately injur Person A?
Lastly, what if this injury turns out to be permanent, and has an effect on Person A's quality of life (unable to do anymore DIY forever, can't do any sports, constantly in pain etc)