Injuries Direct - Personal Injury Claims

A worker at Staffordshire University has been won a £110,000 compensation claim for work-related stress.

However, despite the payout was made in an out-of-court settlement, the university has refused to accept liability.

Programme manager Mark Bannister, 49, was allegedly made to work up to 65 hours a week after one of his colleagues committed suicide and another went on long-term sick leave.

The members of staff were not replaced and Mr Bannister was given more and more work to deal with. Despite complaining about the massively increased workload, his bosses did nothing to relieve the pressure.

Mr Bannister, who has a history of anxiety and depression, signed off sick from work in September 2007, and briefly returned before going off sick again.

His compensation claim solicitors argued that Staffordshire University should have done more to ensure that their employees were not overworked.

They said: “Despite Staffordshire University being aware of Mr Bannister’s previous medical history and despite his complaints about the workload nothing was done to ensure he was coping. Stress cases are difficult to prove but here Mr Bannister was ignored and felt he had no choice but to work excessive hours and the damage to his health followed.”

A heating engineer has won an employment tribunal compensation claim against his employer.

Jonathon Baskeyfield has been awarded £4,000 after a court decided that he had been a victim of unfair dismissal from his work; CM Renewable Energy Ltd.

The company, based in Burslem , Stoke-on-Trent sacked Mr Baskeyfield after accusing him of using company vans for his own personal use.

He told the panel that they were using the reason as an excuse to get rid of him and insisted that he had done nothing wrong.

He said: “There was not much work available at the time and I was using the van only for work. I have a good reputation in the Stoke-on-Trent area.”

His claim was broken down into a month’s wages of £1,810, £417 in notice pay and £1,671 as compensation.

Mr Baskeyfield has now found another job. CM Renewable Energy refused to comment.

East London Premiership football club West Ham Utd have agreed to pay ex-manager Alan Curbishley a £2.2million compensation claim payout.

Curbishley won a case for constructive dismissal last November after two of his top players were sold against his wishes to rival team Sunderland in September 2008.

He had originally attempted to claim £3million in compensation from the club, however they counter-acted this by arguing his departure had cost them in having to pay for new manager Gianfranco Zola and assistant Steve Clarke. Curbishley was instead offered £1.2million from the club recently.

It’s now believed that West Ham’s new owners David Sullivan and David Gold are looking to settle many of the club’s old financial worries and that they met with Curbishley to discuss a payout to him at some point in the last two weeks. They also plan to look at the ongoing affair with Sheffield United, who were relegated by a goal scored by Carlos Tevez, who was illegally playing for them at the time.

A £2.2million compensation claim was the figure eventually agreed between both parties.

Ex-workers of a Hull caravan manufacturer who won a dismissal compensation claim are still waiting to receive their payment.

333 workers were involved in the claim win; worth at least £1.5million. However, they are now unsure exactly how much they will receive and when.

The employees lost their jobs before Christmas 2008 when their employer - Atlas Holiday Homes went into administration. They were able to take them to an employment tribunal as they could prove that no 90-day notice period was given to them; something which is required by UK law.

At the tribunal it was decided that each member of staff could claim back 91 days of lost wages; which at a minimum salary of £350 per week would total £4,550. This would be done by applying to the company’s administrators BDO Stoy Hayward.

Despite this decision, the employees are still waiting for their wage payments after over a year.

While they wait, the workers can apply for eight weeks pay at £350 a week, meaning they should receive at least £2,800. However, some are facing the reality that they may never see the rest of their compensation claim payout.

Employee of 14 years Simon Field said: “The company left us high and dry at Christmas time and tried to hush us away. This means we will all at least get some of what we are owed. But even though we get eight weeks back, most of us were on more than £350 per week anyway.”

An ex-deputy head teacher who was unfairly sacked from his job has won his claim for compensation.

However, Michael Oldham’s award was reduced by half of what he could have been entitled to after the employment tribunal ruled he was 50% to blame for the dismissal.

Mr Oldham, who for 12 years had been a specialist science teacher at Lode Heath Secondary School in Solihull, was sacked following a dispute against his teaching methods. Solihull Council claimed that he had failed to teach year 11 pupils following school curriculum guidelines and would not cooperate with his teaching colleagues requests for pupils’ progress.

The teacher argued that although there were some problems with the class, results actually turned out to be good and therefore there was a lack of evidence to support the allegations.

The chairman of the employment tribunal decided that Mr Oldham had been unfairly treated and awarded £15,000 for his claim for compensation.

He was also offered to be reinstated at the school, but he decided against it. He is currently working as a supply teacher in the area.

A man who was sacked following a working hour’s dispute has been awarded £20,000 after making a claim for compensation for unfair dismissal.

Andrew Lappin, a service engineer from Stoke-on-Trent was sacked when his firm accused him of gross misconduct when he worked Good Friday and took off the Tuesday after Easter in lieu.

Although the company, Complete Handling (Northern) Ltd claimed that they had not agreed to this, Mr Lapin, 60, said that this was something that he had always done and it had been fine to do so in the past.

He also attempted to claim for discrimination, after the company constantly complained about the number of phone calls he made to check on his disabled wife. However the employment tribunal decided that this was not a valid claim and there had not been discrimination by association.

Although it was decided that Mr Lappin had partially contributed to his dismissal, it was ruled that he had been dismissed unfairly as the correct procedures had not been followed.

The tribunal chairman said that at 60, Mr Lappin was unlikely to find another job and took this into account when awarding his compensation claim figure of just under £20,000. However, this was a 10% reduction on what would have been awarded had his partial contribution not have played a part.

An NHS doctor has won a claim for compensation against her employers after being subjected to strong racial discrimination.

Dr Sarina Saiger was told by her boss that she was ‘the wrong colour and culture for Cumbria’, and claimed she had to endure ‘an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment’ whilst working for the North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Dr Saiger worked her way up through the ranks at the NHS, starting as a nurse before obtaining a degree, a masters and a doctorate while she was still working and being a single mother. She finally became an assistant director of nursing at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle and the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven.

It was also claimed that during a confrontation with her now retired line-manager Bruce Skilbeck that she was grabbed so tightly it left her with a bruise. However when she complained about the assault, it was her that faced disciplinary action.

After disputing this and taking action for race discrimination, Dr Saiger was eventually sacked in 2008 after enduring months of harassment and victimisation.
 
Dr Saiger’s claim for compensation meant she was awarded £115,000 for personal injury and loss of earnings.

A park ranger who was sacked for making a ‘racist comment’ to a colleague has been won his £40,000 compensation claim following an employment tribunal.

Michael Farmer, 52, was relieved of his duties at Lambeth Council after asking black colleague Dwight Parker why he had put polish on his legs when he arrived at work wearing shorts.

He was subsequently branded as a racist and falsely accused of being a member of the extreme right-wing British National Party, despite previously setting up a black youth community football team.

Lambeth Council, which has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy to racism, sacked the married father of two after two disciplinary hearings.

However, Mr Farmer, who only commented in what he believed to be a light-hearted manner said: “As is the tradition when a male colleague switches from wearing long trousers to shorts a certain amount of badinage ensues. I have enjoyed a joke with Dwight on numerous occasions in the past. If I have offended Dwight this time then I can but apologise most sincerely.”

He added that branding him racist was ‘the antithesis of what he stood for’ and said, “What chance do I have as a middle-aged man getting another job in a recession?’

The judge sitting on the compensation claim employment tribunal said: “An individual’s race or colour is a fact of life. It does not follow that alluding to such matters to or in the presence of the individual concerned necessarily involves racism or less favourable treatment of the individual.”

An ITV news presenter will take her employers to an employment tribunal after claiming she became a victim of racist discrimination.

Lisa Aziz’s compensation claim could see her being awarded anything up to £5million from the national news channel.

Ms Aziz, who became the first Asian presenter of a national terrestrial news programme, was fired from the news channel after being accused of making regular wrongful claims for expenses.

However, in a new revelation she has argued that she became a victim to racist and ageist attacks – stating that ITV wanted to get rid of her for new, younger female presenters.

Ms Aziz has also revealed how she had regularly heard racist, mimicking comments from weekend news presenter Steve Scott. Many of the attacks were against established ITV anchor Sir Trevor McDonald

The employment tribunal, which starts in March next year, will examine claims of race, sex and age discrimination.

ITV have denied the accusations, saying: “We have carried out a full and thourough investigation which found the claims made by Lisa Aziz to be baseless. We will vigorously defend our position in this regard.”

A high-paid female executive is making a compensation claim of £4million against her former employer.

Jordan Wimmer, 29, is taking her multi-million pound city boss to an employment tribunal after accusing him of sexual harassment and unfair treatment in the workplace.

Mark Lowe, founder of Nomos Capital in London, faces the prospect of making the compensation claim payout despite his former employee making the company around £600 million in the space of one year.

Since the alleged sexual harassment and leaving her £500,000 per year position at Nomos Capital, Miss Wimmer has battled with severe depression, stress and anxiety. The court heard how she has been on a ‘cocktail of medication’ just to try and help her get to sleep at night.

Mr Lowe, according to Miss Wimmer, told her that she should ‘work more and wear less’ in front of a room full of people in their central London offices. He constantly told her about his encounters with Asian women and made her feel inadequate by telling her she was ‘too commercial looking’ because of her blonde hair and blue eyes.

She told the court: “It’s not a tease. If I was a man he would not have said that to me. I think it was extraordinarily inappropriate and demeaning when your boss is only talking to you about teenage love and lust stories about his Malaysian girlfriend.”

Mr Lowe and Nomos Capital are currently contesting Miss Wimmer’s compensation claim, and state that she is embellishing her story in order to flourish her accusations.