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UK Hops Limited, a farming firm based in Leicestershire, has been fined £3,500 and was ordered to pay costs of £4,019.55 at Lowestoft Magistrates’ Court, after pleading guilty to breaching Regulation 5 of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. The company was prosecuted after an accident at work with one of its workers suffered a serious injury to his hand during an accident with a hop press.
The incident occurred on the 24th September 2010, when a 51-year-old worker, who has not been named, was helping to compile a bale of hops at White House Farm in Sibton. While using a hop press, the worker was injured when the plunger that compresses the hops sprung upwards, causing the farm worker’s right hand to become trapped inside the machine.
Despite managing to free his hand without assistance, the worker was left with a serious injury to his hand and spent the next fortnight in hospital, where he underwent several operations including a skin graft. Sadly, the worker is unlikely to regain the full use of his hand.
Regulation 5 of the 1998 Regulations states: “Every employer shall ensure that work equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.” An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive revealed that the hop press had not been properly or regularly maintained and the controls used to operate the machine were found not to be working correctly.
In the UK, personal injury claims are often filed against employers who fail in their duty of care to workers or members of the public. According to the Health and Safety Executive, agriculture and manufacturing are two of Britain’s most dangerous industries, accounting for hundreds of deaths and thousands of serious injuries every year. Accident claims can be avoided by employers who implement sufficient steps to prevent workers suffering injuries. In the present case, a regular inspection and adequate maintenance of the hop press ought to have prevented the farm worker’s life-changing injury.
Speaking after the court hearing, Health and Safety Executive inspector, Ivan Brooke, said: “This was a serious and entirely preventable incident that left a worker with an injury which is likely to affect him for the rest of his life.
“Hop presses have the potential to be very dangerous if they’re not maintained properly and UK Hops Limited should have made sure this employee was not put at risk. The case clearly demonstrates the importance of employers maintaining their equipment, to ensure it is safe for their employees to use.”
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For those of you that are put to task on the job outside the office, there is a strong likelihood you are forking over your own cash to pay for what should be reimbursable expenses. Since many of these expenses seem small on an individual basis – think road tolls and parking meters – you may be quick to dismiss them and not seek reimbursement from your company. This is especially true if there is no written, formal guideline for pursuing business-related reimbursements.
Getting to the Bottom of Expenses
Many employees may actually feel guilty about asking for their own hard-earned money back from a very profitable business. The reality is that any expenses that are deemed as business-related such as travel, dining, supplies, equipment, and the like is not a personal obligation of the employee. Even if the company does not have any rules or guidelines on the matter, if you are putting out cash on someone else’s behalf, you have a right to ask for it back within reason. If business takes you out of the country, you may also want to consider using no foreign transaction fee credit cards.
Here are some tips to help you stop spending your cash without payback from your employer:
Have a Sit Down
If you have in the past put up the money for business-related expenses, you have a right to know the company’s policy on reimbursement. Schedule a meeting with your supervisor, human resource representative, or whoever would be in charge of money matters and decisions. Ask them directly what expenses the company is obligated to repay and what protocol should be used to request reimbursement. Many times, company representatives and management may not even know. But don’t leave until you get answers.
Don’t Dismiss the Small Stuff
Spending a dollar on a toll-road may not seem like a big deal but the point is you are wasting your own money unnecessarily. In this economy, when every dollar counts, make sure you are not getting the short end of the stick. Work on changing your mentality about how you view expenses being paid and stop trying to forget the small stuff. It does add up over time.
Be Consistent in Tracking
When you have expenses while on the road it can be easy to forgot purchases or lose receipts. It becomes very important for you to stay organized. You can start simply with a pocket folder, a pen, some paper clips, and an Employee Expense Reimbursement Form. Use the form to write down all spending and keep the relevant receipts in the pocket of the folder. You can categorize each expense and clip receipts directly to the form. Stay on top of your expenses by notating the necessity of each purchase.
Turn In Documents in a Timely Manner
It is important not just to track your expensive and prove they are valid, you also need to ensure you turn in your expense tracking sheet regularly. Whether you can hand over the sheet you have been using throughout the week or month or you have a formal sheet to complete, it is up to you to schedule regular reminders on your personal calendar. Otherwise, an employer has a right to refuse reimbursement requests that are not handed in on time.
Reviewing the Reality
Once you have had a few weeks or several months to actually calculate what you have been spending on the behalf of someone else, you can begin to clearly see how much those little expenses are actually costing you. You can also put a plan into place for using those expense reimbursement checks for your own benefit. Consider opening a separate bank account and handle all work-related expenses through the attached debit card by regularly depositing your reimbursement checks into one place. It will also help with your expense tracking and ensure you have money on the road when you need it.
Tisha Tolar is a finance writer providing content for Vertex42.com – a site offering a large selection of free spreadsheet templates and financial calculators.
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One of these things is not like the other...
Can you guess? Huh? Huh?
Given the recent, as well as future-expected, changes in fee structures at Banco del Big, I figured it was high time I moved. Since ING Direct denied me a checking account before due to my bad credit, they weren’t an option. The only allure of Ally is their interest, but at a half of a percent, it would net me about $10 per year. Year! That sure isn’t worth the trouble. Perkstreet, on the other hand… these guys (and gals! I distinctly remember both genders being represented at FinCon) are so far on the same page with me that it isn’t even funny. Here I sit, complaining month after month that I use my debit card waaaaaay too much, and you want to pay me to do… exactly that?
Hell to the yeah.
My only complaints so far:
- The assigned username. It’s better than assigning a password, I suppose…
- Antique style checks. Yes, yes, they’re free checks, but damn are they ugly. And they totally don’t match the 21st century internet-only banking theme going on.
- Getting two deposit slips and a signature card, but only two envelopes. I don’t plan on needing more than that any time soon, but it’s just illogical. C’mon naw.
- The existence of the signature card itself, because I like to sign at cash registers with smiley faces or the day’s weather, instead of my name. I’ll just keep doing that anyway.
- My opening deposit didn’t go through yet. And I don’t think it’s ever going to. Good thing I’m not in a hurry. I’m pretty sure it’s not my fault, either, because they make it sound like there’s no 2.5% fee when you use a card for the opening deposit (and I used the full balance of one of those prepaid cards in my wallet).
Next week I’ll learn ya a terrible reason to move to a particular bank in the first place. Because hindsight is amusing.
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Many people wrongfully assume that debt is created by people going out and spending their wages or earnings on consumer goods they are unable to pay off, or getting involved in an unsustainable mortgage contract that was dim-wittedly signed. However, debt is usually due to the desire to have shelter, even though income has dried up. There is no greater tragedy, in this regard, than someone falling ill and being able to support themselves.
Unlike redundancy, physical and mental illnesses can leave you unable to do the job you worked hard to get, and this will only get worse if recovery is slow or not even possible at all. The added stress of trying to keep up with debt payments often only makes people worse, especially if their quality of living is also dropping as pennies are scraped together to meet basic amenities.
Many people have found that the best way to counteract this problem is to sell their house fast, as this is the best way to release equity if it is already owned by them. It’s hardly a surprise, given the amount of money that may be necessary to succeed in getting past the issues that ill health can present.
After all, high debt burdens impact on so many areas of life, and these can incur costs of their own. For example, if you’re ill, you may not be able to physically, mentally or emotionally cope with the speed that income drops – particularly if you’re sleeping or resting for a large part of the time. As health further deteriorates, it becomes harder to sort your finances out, especially when you need to pay for respite care or similar.
You may also have to pay for transport, or meet prescriptions or alternative medicines that are necessary to dig you out of the deepening hole. You may even need to invest in a carer, or private treatment to speed up a possible return to work, but you may have to foot some of the costs. Particularly if your job is a very physical one, it may take even longer to return to fitness levels before an illness came about.
Whatever you decide to do, consider your options and don’t get too attached to things you own, especially your house – it may just be your ticket to an escape from the problems you face!
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Ed: This was written on a train. Three weeks ago. On the way *to* Chicago. Not exactly timely, and now completely outdated, but whatever.
Leading up to the Financial bloggers Conference in Chicago last week two weeks ago three weeks ago, I had been reading quite a bit about introversion and how to handle it with inherently social events. One person who has been inadvertently helping me with this lately is Jana Fadness, with her own posts about introversion and, well, clubbing.
When I finally found a roommate in Paula @ Afford Anything, she noted that she has gotten to know a good many people just from riding the train, and suggested I do the same. Being one to myself, however, this is easier said than done. However, much like the conference itself, I vowed to be as open to others as possible. Not that it necessarily makes the experience more enjoyable for me (not really), but for the sake of getting everything out of the experience as I can.
Crazy as it may sound, it can really come in handy. I know that to anyone else, such things will seem obvious, but for an analytical person like myself who happens to be bucking the norm, it’s quite interesting.
The trip to Chicago involves a four hour layover in Pittsburgh, which is nothing short of exciting. The train station looks more like a bus station, and with only one television, you’re really left to your own for entertainment. So, how did I end up on the other side of the river, at Joe’s Crab Shack? Pick two random people walking by your seat as everyone is emptying the train, and mention to them the lack of anything to do for the next four hours.
Boom. Dynamite. It goes.
But now, for the flip side, and I swear, this totally isn’t my fault. The next train through had assigned seating, and I just so happened to end up across the aisle from the couple I went out to eat with. And right next to me? Smexy quasi-hipster girl, who I may or may not have been creeping on from a distance at the station. The first thing I did was make my sociability known to the car, because that’s generally a good idea, right? Didn’t work. Just now, nine hours after I sat down next to her, I heard the first words out of her mouth all night – “excuse me” as she got up and left.
It makes for a slightly akward situation. It also makes it very difficult for me to charge my phone. But, honestly, it may be that she’s just like me, and I can’t really fault her for that, now can I?
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