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Peripatetic workers and PPE – legal victory
In February 2016, the GMB general union reported a significant victory against home care company Cordia, following a five-year battle for compensation for a care worker who was injured when she slipped in icy conditions while on her way to treat a terminally ill client.
Tracey Kennedy badly injured her wrist when she slipped on an ungritted path described as a sheet of ice under a layer of snow. Cordia had not carried out a risk assessment, nor had it provided her with suitable, protective equipment. The case against the company was successful in the Scottish Court of Session, but subsequently overturned by the Inner House. The Supreme Court decision upheld the original decision that Cordia was to blame for the accident for failing to take adequate steps to provide for her health and safety at work.
Tracey Kennedy v Cordia (Services) LLP [2016] UKSC 6
GMB organiser for Cordia Louise Gilmour described the case as “a landmark decision not only for peripatetic workers such as home carers, but for all workers who can rely on the employer’s common law duty of care and deals a blow to the past Conservative government’s attempts to stop workers from receiving full compensation when they suffer an accident at work”.