According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, slips, trips, and falls were the second leading cause of nonfatal injuries to workers in the U.S. and the third leading cause of fatal injuries to workers in 2016. Slips, trips and falls can cause serious injuries to workers and can result in you having to spend days away from work to heal broken bones or pulled muscles. Depending on the severity of your injuries, slips, trips and falls can render you permanently disabled from a spinal cord injury or even a brain injury.

Fluids or debris on the floor: One of the most common reasons employees slip or fall is because there is something on the floor that is making it slippery. Liquids or dry debris can both make the floor slippery and unsafe. Examples of these hazards can include:

• Water;
• Grease;
• Soap;
• Ice or snow;
• Dust, powder or granules; and
• Freshly mopped or waxed floors.

Walking surface irregularities: Trips, especially, can happen where there is no consistency in walking surfaces when there should be. These irregularities can be both indoors and outdoors. Walking surface irregularities can include:

It does not matter what industry you work in - there is always a chance that you can injure yourself at work. The first 24 hours after you injure yourself are crucial - your actions can determine how easy it will be to claim your workers’ compensation benefits and how strong of a claim you have. By taking the appropriate actions after a workplace injury, you can help make your worker’s compensation process a little bit easier.

1. Get Medical Help

The first thing you should do after you are injured at work is seek necessary medical attention, though where you get it from can be important. If your employer has a Preferred Provider Program (PPP), you should choose a doctor or hospital that is a part of that program. You have the choice of two physicians that are within your employer’s PPP, whose costs will be covered. If you choose not to be seen by physicians in your employer’s PPP, you can be seen by one physician of your choice, but further visits must be approved. If your employer does not have a PPP, you have the choice of any two providers.

Though the death and injury rate for workers in the United States has decreased since the inception of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) in 1970, workplace injuries and deaths are still reported today, many stemming from inadequate workplace safety precautions. Nearly 5,200 people were killed on the job in 2016 - which is about 14 deaths per day. While not all deaths are preventable, many of them are, which is why the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has developed certain standards to keep a safe workplace.

General Duty

In the “General Duty Clause” of the OSH Act, all employers have the responsibility of providing a safe workplace that does not contain any known hazards. This rule is a generalized version of other specific rules that OSHA has for certain industries. There are four groups of OSHA standards, which include:

All employees deserve to work in a relatively safe environment. By nature, some jobs are more dangerous than others, but they still must follow certain safety guidelines to prevent workplace injuries or deaths. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) provides a set of general and industry-specific guidelines for safety measures that should be taken in order to prevent injuries and death in the workplace. Unfortunately, not all workplaces always follow OSHA’s guidelines, which results in accidents that could have been easily prevented. Here are the most commonly cited violations that OSHA has reported during workplace inspections:

1. Fall Protection in Construction Industry

Fall protection violations were the most cited violation in 2017. This regulation states that construction employers have the duty to make sure that work and walking surfaces have enough strength and structure to hold employees. This regulation also states that there should be guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems in place when an employee is working in an area without a protected edge.

One of the most traumatic things a family can go through is the loss of a family member through a workplace accident. Not only are you grieving for your loved one, you might be worried about your family’s financial future. Many American families sustain their standard of living by having two incomes. With the loss of one income, your family could be facing financial hardship. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act allows the spouses and children of the worker to collect death benefits of a deceased loved one who was killed on the job.

Who Can Receive Death Benefits?

When a worker is killed on the job, their surviving spouse and children who are under the age of 18 are entitled to death benefits. These are called primary beneficiaries. If there are no primary beneficiaries that exist, then the benefits can be paid to totally dependent parents of the deceased worker. If totally dependent parents do not exist, benefits can be paid to anyone who was at least 50 percent dependent on the worker before his or her death.