Factory Injury Claims
Free advice, and your job is protected by law
If you were hurt in a factory or warehouse because the equipment, the training or the safety measures were not what they should have been, you may be able to claim compensation. Your claim is paid by your employer’s insurance, not out of your employer’s pocket, and it does not matter whether you are permanent, agency or on a zero-hours contract. We handle factory injury claims on a No Win No Fee basis, whether the harm came from a single accident or built up over years.
Regulated solicitors
Years' experience
No Win No Fee
Can you make a factory injury claim?
Usually, if your employer fell short of what the law requires. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the regulations under it, an employer must provide safe equipment and maintain it, train you properly for the job you are actually doing, carry out risk assessments, and supply protective equipment free of charge. A claim asks whether those duties were met and whether your injury followed from the failure.
In practice the answer often turns on details a worker already knows: the guard that had been missing for weeks, the training that never happened, the spill nobody cleared, the pallet truck everyone knew was faulty. If any of that sounds like your factory, it is worth a conversation. We will tell you honestly whether there is a claim.
Common factory accidents and their causes
Factory and warehouse injuries rarely come out of nowhere. Most follow something that had already been noticed: a machine running without its guard, a walkway used as storage, a forklift route crossing a pedestrian area, a job being done by someone who was never shown how.
That is what the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority exists for. It is a government scheme that can make an award to a victim of a violent crime in England, Wales or Scotland, funded by the state rather than by the attacker. You do not need anyone to have been convicted, and you do not have to wait for a trial to finish before applying.
manufacturing workers injured at work each year
That is the annual average across 2022/23 to 2024/25. Manufacturing is not far from the all-industry average for non-fatal injuries, but its fatal injury rate runs at roughly one and a half times the rate across all industries, which is why the safety duties on factory employers are taken seriously.
Source: Health and Safety Executive, manufacturing sector statistics.
Machinery accidents
Missing or defeated guards, poor maintenance, and machines not isolated before someone reached in to clear a jam.
Slips, trips and falls
Oil and coolant spills, wet floors without signs, trailing cables, and walkways blocked by stock or pallets.
Forklifts and vehicles
Collisions with pedestrians, loads dropped from forks, and untrained or uncertified drivers operating on site.
Falling objects and stock
Badly stacked racking, loads that shifted, and items falling from mezzanines or overhead conveyors.
Manual handling and lifting
Back and shoulder injuries from loads that were too heavy, awkward or repetitive, without training or lifting aids.
Chemicals, burns and PPE failures
Splashes and fumes, hot surfaces, and injuries that happened because protective equipment was missing or wrong for the task.
What claiming against your employer actually involves
Most people who ring us about a factory injury have already decided they cannot claim, usually for one of two reasons: they think the money would come out of the company’s pocket, or they think they would lose their job.
Neither is how it works. Employers are required by law to hold Employers’ Liability insurance, currently a minimum of five million pounds of cover, and to display the certificate where staff can see it. Your claim is handled and paid by that insurer. The law also protects employees from being dismissed or treated unfairly for bringing a genuine claim.
The other thing worth knowing is that agency and temporary workers can claim too. Factory and warehouse floors run heavily on agency labour, and agency staff often assume the protection does not extend to them. It does, though working out who is responsible takes a little more care.
- The insurer pays, not your employer directly, which is what the insurance is for
- You are protected from being dismissed for bringing a genuine claim
- Agency, temporary and zero-hours workers can claim; responsibility may sit with the agency, the site you worked at, or both
- You can still claim after leaving the job, and often after the business has closed
If you are still working there and would rather keep things discreet while you find out where you stand, say so when you call. That is a normal request.
What factory injury claims can cover
No honest figure can be given before the medical evidence is in, and no calculator can produce one, because the same injury affects two people’s working lives very differently. A machine operator and an office-based colleague with the same hand injury are not in the same position at all.
A claim has two parts. General damages cover the injury itself, the recovery and any lasting effects. Special damages cover what the accident has cost you, which in factory work is often the larger figure, because shift premiums, overtime and the ability to do the job at all are frequently affected.
- The injury, your treatment and any permanent effects
- Lost earnings, including overtime and shift pay, past and future
- Treatment, rehabilitation, travel and equipment costs
- Care from family, and help with things you can no longer manageCare from family, and help with things you can no longer manage
- Retraining, if you cannot go back to the same kind of work
Evidence that supports a factory injury claim
A factory generates more written evidence than almost any other workplace, and much of it is held by your employer rather than you. Factory accident claims are usually won or lost on those records. We request them. Your job is to tell us what happened.
Employers must report serious injuries under RIDDOR. If yours was reportable, there may already be a record, and we can ask for it.
No Win No Fee factory injury claimsNo Win No Fee factory injury claims
A No Win No Fee agreement, properly called a Conditional Fee Agreement, means there is nothing to pay upfront. If the claim does not succeed, you do not pay us for our work, subject to the terms of your agreement.
If it succeeds, a success fee agreed with you in advance is deducted from your compensation. Insurance is usually arranged to protect you against the other side’s costs. It is all set out in writing and explained before you sign, including the parts people find least interesting.
No pressure and no obligation. Asking whether you have a claim commits you to nothing.
Factory injury claims: your
questions answered
The questions we are asked most, answered plainly.
Will I be sacked for making a factory injury claim?
You should not be. An employer cannot lawfully dismiss you or treat you unfairly, such as cutting your hours, because you brought a genuine claim. It also helps to know the money does not come from the company directly: employers must hold Employers’ Liability insurance, and the claim is handled by that insurer. If you are worried about how it would be received at work, tell us and we will talk it through before anything is started.
Can I claim if I am an agency or temporary worker?
Yes. Being agency, temporary or on a zero-hours contract does not remove your right to a safe place of work. The main difference is working out who was responsible: it may be the agency that placed you, the business whose site you were working on, or both, depending on who controlled the work and the equipment. That is our job to sort out, not yours.
What if the accident was partly my fault?
You can often still claim. The law calls this contributory negligence, and it usually reduces compensation to reflect your share rather than removing the claim. It comes up in a good proportion of factory accident claims, where people take shortcuts because of the pace of the line or because that is how everyone was shown to do it. Being partly responsible is not the same as being solely responsible, so it is worth asking before you rule yourself out.
Can I claim if I have left the job or the factory has closed?
Usually, yes. Leaving the job does not end your right to claim, and neither does the business closing down. Because employers were required to be insured, it is often possible to trace the insurer who was on cover at the time and bring the claim against them. It is worth asking even if the company no longer exists.
What if my injury built up over time rather than in one accident?
Those claims are possible too. Repetitive strain, back and shoulder damage from years of lifting, hand-arm vibration and hearing loss all come from the job rather than a single moment. The time limit runs from when you first connected the problem to your work, which is often much later than when the damage started, so do not assume you are out of time.
How long do I have to make a factory injury claim?
Usually three years from the accident, or from when you first realised the injury was linked to your work. If you were under 18 at the time, the three years runs from your eighteenth birthday, and where an injured person lacks the mental capacity to claim, the time limit generally does not run at all. Earlier is better regardless, because site footage and records do not last forever.
Find out where you stand
Tell us what happened and how you have been since. We will explain which route applies to you, what it would involve, and whether it is worth pursuing. If it is not, we will say so.
- Free, confidential and without obligation
- No Win No Fee available
- SRA-regulated solicitors
Check if you can make a claim
Takes less than 60 seconds
Other claims we handle
Find out whether you have a claim
Most people who call us have already talked themselves out of it once. A short conversation will tell you where you actually stand, including how it works if you still work there. It is free and puts you under no obligation.
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