Businesses have the difficult task of balancing the desire to maximize profits with best practices for running a business. At some point, keeping staff levels low will start to affect the service customers receive and even the safety of the business’s facilities.
Most companies try to keep just enough staff members on to meet all of the business’s obligations. If you can connect a lack of staff with your slip and fall injuries, you may be able to hold the business accountable for its negligence.
Understaffing is a known issue
Companies know that understaffing is a risky practice that affects the customer’s experience and the work satisfaction of their employees, but they may engage in the practice anyway. When there aren’t enough people to run the cash registers and keep shelves stocked, for example, the workers may not even attempt to engage in the cleaning and maintenance that is necessary to keep the facility safe.
When the company cuts worker hours to a point that they simply cannot keep the facilities safe by addressing spills as they occur or switching out mats at the front doors that get saturated during rainy weather, people can get hurt.
Companies can easily foresee those risks, which means that by ignoring them through their employment practices, they engage in potentially actionable negligence. If you can show that negligence directly resulted in you getting hurt while at the store, you can potentially bring a premises liability claim against the business or their insurance policy.
Pursuing a premises liability claim for a slip-and-fall can lead to compensation for your injuries and lost wages.
