Injured Fairground Worker Succeeds in Personal Injury Claim

There are often few, if any, witnesses to accidents at work and accounts of how they occurred may differ dramatically. As a case concerning an injured fairground worker showed, however, judges are adept at weighing up the evidence before reaching conclusions as to the most likely sequence of…

Nov 13, 2023

The worker suffered multiple injuries to his right foot when he fell 15-20 feet whilst working on a ride. His account was that he and a manager were standing on a wet handrail, attempting to free a seized bolt, when he fell. He said that a scaffolding pole had been attached to a standard spanner, with a view to improving leverage, and that he lost his footing when the bolt suddenly gave way.

After he launched a personal injury claim, however, his employer denied liability. It asserted, amongst other things, that the manager was not present when he fell and that he was neither instructed nor authorised to work at height. All reasonable steps were said to have been taken to minimise risk of injury in that only the manager was allowed to work at height and he was provided with a harness.

Following a trial, however, a judge preferred the worker’s account of what had happened. His description of events leading up to the accident had been consistent throughout and was inherently credible. On that basis, the judge had no hesitation in finding that his injuries arose from an unsafe system of work.

He had no formal health and safety training, having learned on the job, and the judge found that the manager had positively requested his assistance in performing a task that was foreseeably dangerous. If not agreed, the amount of his compensation would be assessed at a further hearing.

Small Employer Pays Heavily for Ignorance of the Acas Code

Ignorance of the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures is a positive invitation to Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings. A small employer found that out to its cost after a cleaner was sacked by text message. When the woman launched proceedings, the owner of the six-employee business for which she worked contended that she had been dismissed for gross misconduct. He confirmed, however, that he had not followed the Acas Code and that, having never dismissed an employee…

Protected Acts, Detrimental Treatment and Victimisation – Guideline Ruling

It is your right to lodge Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings if you feel that you have been mistreated at work and, whether you win or lose, you are also entitled to expect that you will not be detrimentally treated for doing so. That principle was very much to the fore in a guideline Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruling. The case concerned a black British IT worker who had twice in the past launched ET claims against his employer. He had raised serious allegations of race and disability…

Nurse Victimised for Whistleblowing Receives Substantial Compensation

Workplace whistleblowing is an act of good citizenship and the law frowns deeply on employers who fail to respond appropriately. An Employment Tribunal (ET) made that point in awarding substantial compensation to an NHS nurse who complained of racism and bullying on the ward where she worked. The nurse complained to her manager that junior colleagues were being bullied and that staff on the ward had formed into cliques, divided by race. She also asserted that racial factors were affecting the…