EL Claims and Superlurgy

[Dave Morgan]

I know that it's different on the other side of the pond where most of
the people on RiskList reside and where there's WC rather than EL, but
I'm wondering how things will pan out once we get to the other end of
Superlurgy in terms of compensation claims for workplace injuries.

An example:

My girlfriend suffered an industrial injury the other day. To be fair,
it was her fault. Her employer has been looking after her since her
injury and we're quite pleased with how they're treating her. Having
said that, her employer is on the hook for this one if she decided - she
won't - to take legal action.

When I say "she won't" I mean that she won't while she's employed by
them. In all honesty, it's quite likely that she'll still be employed by
her employer for as long as she wants to remain employed by them, but
that's not the case for everyone.

In the UK there's a lot of firms that are only continuing to survive
because the government is propping them up via financial support. Once
that financial support ceases - and it's almost inevitable that it will
because the money will run out - a lot of firms will go bust.

Once those firms go bust, the loyalty thing that stops you taking legal
action against your employer no longer stops you doing that. My
girlfriend still has until the summer of 2023 to commence legal action,
for instance, as we have three years to do that over here. And she won't
be the only one with a potential claim. And if you're made redundant and
no longer have a job, the compensation carrot dangling in front of you
will be tempting to take.  I suspect the "no win, no fee" law firms have
already worked this one out.

I can see EL insurers here in the UK getting hit fairly hard once we get
into the summer of 2021.

Am I wrong? Am I right? I think this is the first time I've seen a
potentially catastrophic economic collapse - this one could well beat
2008 - and so I'm interested to hear any thoughts from someone who's
experienced something like this, or has any opinion on which way it
might go.

Dave