A judgment has recently been given by the Court of Appeal in the case of Ghaith v Indesit Company UK Limited [2012].
Ghaith v Indesit Company UK Limited [2012]
Case Details
The Claimant was an employee of the Defendant company. The Claimant was provided with a van which he drove to designated areas to repair white goods sold to customers. The van was stocked with machine parts and once per year the Defendant arranged for a stock take of these items. In March 2007 the Claimant was carrying out a stock take with his supervisor which meant lifting items out of the van and scanning them on a hand held computer. These items included washing machine drums. The task took most of the day with the Claimant completing 70% of the lifting and having four short breaks. At about 4p or 4.30pm the Claimant felt sudden and severe pain in his back and was unable to return to work for many weeks.
The Claimant brought proceedings against the Defendant for breach of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. At first instance the judge found in favour of the Defendants concluding that the there was nothing more they could have done to reduce the risk of injury. At appeal, however, it was found that there had been no suitable or sufficient assessment of the relevant risk involved. The onus in matters such as these is on the Defendant to show it had taken all reasonable practicable steps to reduce the risk of injury. An obvious precaution found by the Court was that there should have been regular breaks of reasonable length. The Claimant therefore succeeded and the matter was passed back to the County Court to decide on the amount of compensation which should be awarded.
How Nelsons Can Help
The specialist Personal Injury team at Nelsons are able to give confidential advice on lifting injuries sustained at work as well as many other accidents which occur whilst at work. We are able to offer our clients no win, no fee agreements with our clients receiving 100% of their compensation.
If you have any questions in relation to the topics discussed in this article, please contact the team in Derby, Leicester and Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.