School caretaker awarded settlement after workplace back injury

Thompsons Solicitors has helped secure compensation for a man who suffered a back injury after shovelling snow at work.

The primary school caretaker, who was 59 at the time, developed back pains after spending several hours a day shovelling snow without any assistance. He continued working through the pain, but when it failed to subside he visited his GP, who discovered that he had two slipped discs and he was signed off work. 

The man, who had been a caretaker for five years, struggled for several months with daily tasks, such as cleaning, shopping and getting dressed, because of his injury.

He instructed accident at work specialists, Thompsons Solicitors, to make a personal injury compensation claim.

“New procedures came in before I was injured and that meant I had to do a lot more work, but rarely received any help,” he said. “I was shovelling snow for hours on end with no breaks, and the equipment they gave me to do my job wasn’t good enough. I would be hunched over most of the time and I soon started to feel it in my back.

“My employer seemed disinterested with my injury so I turned to Thompsons Solicitors, who supported me all the way. It meant that my employer was finally held accountable for its failure to look after me.”

Joanne Hankey, work accident specialist at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “Routine work, such as shovelling snow, can lead to painful injuries to an individual’s back, shoulders and arms if there isn’t a work rotation system or proper breaks in place. On this occasion, no thought was given by the employer about the damage being done to its staff’s health in doing such a repetitive job.”