Warehouse Operative Wins £3,500 for Back Injury Claim
Our Claimant was employed as a Warehouse Operative and Picker between November 2015 and September 2018. During this time his role would primarily involve two main tasks. Firstly, our client would push or pull for 2 days. This task was followed by picking items for 3 days of the week. He would undertake other tasks as and when required but these two main roles occupied the majority of his employment. Our claimant would work for 37.5 hours per week from 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm. In and around 2017, his employer reduced the number of employees they had. As a result, our claimant has to undertake 12-hour shifts.
What Was the Warehouse Operative’s Claim?
The Claimant would push and pull cages. The cages would weigh approximately:
- 84kg to 168kg in Grid 1
- 80kg to 100kg in Grid 2 and Grid 4
- 126kg to 144kg in Grid 3
- 120kg to 150kg in Grid 5
The Claimant would have to pull these cages across the warehouse floor. To push the cages across the floor he would have to use excessive force. As a result, this put his shoulders, arms and back in awkward positions. More often than not the wheels on the cages would become stuck therefore he would have to use additional force to move these.
The Claimant reports that on around 40% of the cages the wheels were so badly damaged that he would have to pick up the produce from the cage. This could be fresh chicken or raw meat in Grid 1 cages, ready meals in Grid 2 cages, fresh meat and flour in Grid 3 cages, fresh fish in Grid 4 cages and/or fresh fruit and vegetables in Grid 5 cages. The labour would involve repetitive bending and overstretching to pick up the produce or lift heavy items of goods. These items would vary in weight between 5kg to 15/20kg. He would then have to walk them across to another cage and re-stack the products. The top of the cage could be 2.5 metres high and the bottom was at ankle height.
During his employment, the Claimant was not provided with sufficient manual handling training. As a result of this heavy manual work, the Claimant sustained a back injury.
What Was the Outcome of the Claim?
Our Claimant made numerous complaints about the cages and also his symptoms once they developed his employer failed to acknowledge the issue. With the help of our expert Industrial Disease Solicitor, Stacy Pimlott, our client was able to obtain medical reports from an Orthopaedic Consultants due to the complexity of the Claimant’s injury.
With the help of our Industrial Disease Solicitor Stacy Pimlott, our claimant was able to win £3,500 in damages.
Warehouse Industrial Disease Claims with AWH Solicitors
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Stacy Pimlott Senior Associate Solicitor/Team Manager view profile
