Our client was referred to Thompsons by her union, Unison, following a slip accident at her place of work.
As an employee of Renfrewshire Council, our client provided Night Shift Housing Support in a housing facility for young people. She suffered an accident at work in April 2020.
The background
On the night of the incident, our client had been working in the office at the top (2nd floor) of the building. The Coronavirus pandemic was in its infancy but staff were conscious that they needed to increase the cleaning regime. The dedicated cleaner was absent at the time, so staff had been asked to carry out cleaning duties, however, they had not been given training about correct use of chemicals or hazard signage.
One of our client's colleagues had been mopping the floor outside the office and alerted our client to this fact. A few minutes later, our client heard raised voices on the floor below and got up to provide support. As she set foot into the corridor outside the office she slipped and fell forward onto all fours, hitting her face on the ground.
Our client did not see any "wet floor" signage.
The consequences
The following day our client suffered pain in her lower back, her left shoulder, and her knees. She was prescribed strong painkillers by her GP.
Thompsons' personal injury solicitors obtained a medical report which confirmed our client had suffered soft tissue bruising to her jaw (resolving in 2-3 weeks); a lumbar paravertebral muscular strain (6 week recovery), soft tissue bruising to both knees (6-8 weeks); left shoulder sprain with an associated bicipital tendonitis (14-15 months).
Our client was absent from work for 9 days,
The settlement
Thompsons' solicitors intimated a claim with our client's employer and, initially, liability was denied. We negotiated with the defender and eventually liability was admitted.
The defender submitted a slip accident compensation settlement offer of £6,000. We made a counter offer of £7,000 and the defender increased their settlement sum accordingly. Our client gave Thompsons instructions to accept this sum on her behalf.
Settlement was agreed on 6 August 2021.
