Personal injury advice from
Thompsons Solicitors
Poor Manual Handling Procedures Cause Injury to Youth Centre Employee
6th March 2006
The Legal Line's lawyers, Thompsons Solicitors, were recently able to recover £33,750 personal injury compensation for a gentleman injured in an accident at work caused by poor health and safety procedures.
Injured at Work
In 2002 Mr Gibbon, who was employed by Chester Le Street Youth Centre, had to move a deflated bouncy castle to a storage area after it had been used. He was working alone, with no assistance available, and had to lift the rolled up bouncy castle onto a trolley.
As it was so large and heavy it had to be loaded one end at a time. In doing this Mr Gibbon injured his lower back, when the bouncy castle moved as it was pushed onto the trolley. This resulted in a great deal of pain and substantial loss of earnings.
Although his employers tried to infer that the accident did not happen in the manner described, or even at all, the judge found that there was no evidence to support this.
Risk Assessment Ignored
The evidence provided showed that the standard procedure at the youth centre was for the bouncy castle to be put away by one person, even though an earlier memo supported by a health and safety risk assessment stated that this should never be the case.
Another former employee and Mr Gibbon’s girlfriend verified that they had seen the bouncy castle put away by one person before and that this was the norm. Therefore Durham County Council were found negligent by the judge, as they were in breach of Manual Handling Regulations.
Satisfactory Conclusion
The court awarded Mr Gibbon compensation for his injuries and financial losses caused by the negligence of his employer. Michael Bray from Thompsons South Shields commented:
“Employers can’t expect to expose employees to unacceptable risks at work and then refuse to support them when injuries occur. While compensation can never make up for the difficulties Dean has faced, we are pleased with the outcome of the case.”
Mr Gibbon said:
“I am so pleased to be vindicated at last. I was simply following normal procedures for putting away the bouncy castle as I had observed others doing. I have suffered a lot of pain and loss of earnings and this compensation will certainly help to get me back on track.”
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