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News Desk | News Story
7th September 2010
Factory worker compensated £3000 for repetitive strain injury
A factory worker who developed a repetitive strain injury after his employer failed to put proper risk assessment and work rotation in place has been awarded £3000 compensation for his injuries.
Geoffrey Coleman, 41, an employee at a factory in Kendal, Cumbria, sustained his injuries while packing a new product in the company’s finishing department.
His duties involved packing large sheets of paper into a plastic bag with another member of staff. Once packed, the bags weighed around 50 kilograms.
Due to the repetitive nature of the work Mr Coleman suffered a ligament strain in his forearms. He describes his injuries: “There was this sharp shooting pain from my elbow down through my forearms and into my fingers. I couldn’t grasp anything for a long period of time, and because of the pain I had to take time off work.”
Mr Coleman approached his union, Unite, which funded a claim with personal injury specialists Thompsons Solicitors.
Unite's Regional Secretary, Paul Finegan said: “To the company’s credit they did all the right things once Geoffrey had been injured. Following the incident they did a root cause investigation, brought a specialist in and highlighted the problems that caused the injury and put a safer system of work in to prevent his happening again.”
Fiona Belgian from Thompsons Solicitors says the company involved failed to look into the safest way to do a new job.
“Mr Coleman’s employer had a responsibility to risk assess the job and ensure that employees doing repetitive work are rotated between tasks to avoid injury. Because the company failed to do this it is liable for Mr Coleman’s injury.”
Mr Coleman has now recovered from his injuries and continues to work at the factory.
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