Ill-fitting PPE


Public services union UNISON member, Anthony Roach, worked for Stockton Borough Council in its Neighbourhood Services team. He wore body armour to protect him against stabbings. He worked 11-hour shifts, wearing the body armour at all times, but it was faulty, second-hand and badly fitting and as a result he developed back and shoulder pain. He and colleagues complained but nothing was done to resolve the problem and eventually Mr Roach had to be placed on light duties. Mr Roach was awarded £2,000 compensation for his employer’s failure to provide adequate PPE.


In another case involving ill-fitting PPE, a traffic officer for the Highways Authority Traffic Information Services, Deborah Allen, a member of the Public and Commercial Services union, was awarded £3,600 after unsuitable footwear meant she developed Achilles tendonitis and was off work for three months. She told her employers that she suffered from eczema and that the synthetic boots they supplied would worsen her condition. Her GP also wrote to her employers. But she was told she must wear the work boots, rather than her own leather boots. As a result her feet became so painful that she could not walk.


In February 2016, the general GMB 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.


GMB organiser for Cordia Louise Gilmour described it as “a landmark decision not only for peripatetic workers such as home carers, but for all workers who can rely on the employers 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” (Tracey Kennedy v Cordia (Services) LLP [2016] UKSC 6).