The number of civil compensation cases involving claims against employers has actually fallen every year for the last five years, says the report, entitled The Compensation Myth.
The UK pays out much less money in compensation cases, as a proportion of its GDP, than any other European country except Denmark, and the cost of compensation payouts has remained the same, in real terms, since 1989.
The TUC also denies that compensation payments are too high. The six figure payouts that hit the headlines are extremely rare, it says, with the average settlement around £7,500, and the vast majority receiving less than £5,000.
The report also dispenses with the idea that employers' liability insurance is just another burden on UK businesses – pointing out that the average cost is just 0.25% of firms’ total payroll costs and is the lowest in Europe. It warns that because there is little difference in the premiums paid out by companies with good or bad safety records, there is no incentive for employers with dangerous workplaces to tidy up their acts.
The other claims dismissed by the TUC report are the idea that a large number of claims in recent years has forced up the cost of insurance premiums for employers and the notion that injury and illness cases wouldn’t get taken up if unions stopped encouraging their members to make frivolous claims.
It also knocks the notion that employers often have trouble getting insurance, noting that despite it being a legal requirement, 7% of small businesses don’t have cover because they want to cut costs.
"All the time we hear that the UK is in the grip of a runaway compensation culture and that we are moving ever closer to a US-style ‘sue-first-ask-questions later’ system," said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. "The harsh reality for thousands of ill and injured workers is very different with most getting little if anything when things go wrong at work as a result of their employers’ negligence."
"If insurance premiums more closely reflected an employer’s health and safety record, with those happy to put their employees at risk paying more and those with safer workplaces paying less, we might start to see an improvement in the UK’s poor accident and illness statistics. Cutting our compensation bill is easy, but first UK bosses have to get serious about improving health and safety," he added.
The report suggests two other ways in which the UK’s compensation bill could be cut:
