Case Studies

An employee joined the company as a warehouse operative. His job involved carrying out manual handling tasks. After only 3 months of service, the employee injured his back and put in a claim against the company for compensation. The company could not defend the claim as they were unable to prove whether this was a new injury or an existing medical condition from a previous employment. Also, the employee had not been trained to lift correctly and no safe systems were in place. The employee was awarded £25000 compensation.

An employee worked for a company as a saw operator. The employee had complained about the unsafe condition of the machine to his manager on a number of occasions but no action was taken. Inevitably, the employee cut his hand severely which later resulted in the amputation of 2 fingers. The HSE investigation found the machine to have insufficient guarding, insufficient risk assessments and no safe systems of work. As a result of the enforcement the company was fined £110,000 plus costs and ordered to pay compensation to the employee.

An elderly women was shopping in a national retailer and tripped over goods which had been stacked in an aisle as a special offer. This resulted in the woman falling and severely injured her arm. Although the company had a group H&S manager, the day to day health and safety was left to the store manager who failed to implement his duty of care. The store was guilty of failing to uphold their duty of care and the woman was awarded £5000 for injury, pain and suffering.

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