Office Accident Compensation

In order to be eligible for office accident compensation, it has to be demonstrated that you sustained an injury in an office accident which was attributable to your employer´s lack of care. Not all injuries that are sustained in office accidents qualify for office accident compensation and, if you believe that you have an office accident compensation claim, it is in your best interests to confirm your eligibility to make a compensation claim for an office accident by speaking directly to an experienced solicitor on our freephone Legal Advice Centre.

Accenture Asks Social Media Moderators to Sign Disclosure Agreements

January 26th, 2020. By Compensation News.

Accenture, a professional services company that provides external professional services around the world, has issued disclosure forms to new hires and existing staff which state that they are completely aware that the content they must view as part of the duties may lead to them suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to reports in the US and the UK.

The Financial Time and The Verge have both revealed that the disclosure statement reads: “I understand the content I will be reviewing may be disturbing. It is possible that reviewing such content may impact my mental health, and it could even lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

Accenture contractors are employed as outside moderators for social media sites. These moderators take over the tasks that include deleting any inappropriate content from the platform. In order to do so they must view and listen to disturbing posts of a violent or sexual in nature. A normal day’s work would involve these moderators looking over the inappropriate nature of objectionable materials and review disturbing images.

This step, to send out the disclosure statement, comes as Facebook is braced for legal actions taken by former content moderators that were initiated due to the PTSD they are experiencing as a result of the content they had to view. Legal actions have been initiated in California and Ireland.

Disclosure statements were sent out to Accenture employees in the United States and Europe to sign and return. Current staff members sent the disclosure statement in the form of an update. Accenture has three content moderation offices for Facebook in Europe based in Warsaw, Lisbon and Dublin. As these offices are located in the European Union they are subject to some of the stricest workplace safety rules possible.

The wording of form says that “no job is worth sacrificing my mental or emotional health” and that “this job is not for everyone” and suggests that people who are prone to mental health struggles due to work might not be a good match for Accenture. There is no provision made, in that statement, to say that Accenture is prepared to, as required by federal law in the US, make reasonable accommodations to individual who become disabled due to their job targets and tasks.

Facebook and Google, YouTube’s parent company have both shared public statements which say that they were not asked to approve or review Accenture’s new disclosure statement. They did say that they direct their professional service partners to have in place psychological support for content moderators.

Accenture included details of support services that are provided on the disclosure forms, such as a hotline and a wellness coach. These services are not provided by professional trained staff and Accenture included the line in the disclosure agreement that they “cannot diagnose or treat mental disorders”.

On the statement Accenture has said that the wellbeing of its contractors is is a “top priority” and went on to say that only new joiners were being asked to sign the forms, whereas present members of staff employees were being sent the form as an update. The statement said: “We regularly update the information we give our people to ensure that they have a clear understanding of the work they do”.

It is important that Social media moderators do not sign this statement until they consult with a lawyer familiar with with work injury law and employee rights.

WRC Awards €2,461 to New Father Who Was Sacked During Paternity Leave

May 24th, 2018. By Compensation News.

Teh father of a new baby who had his employment terminated just 11 days after the birth of his new-born baby, while he was on paternity leave, has been awarded €2,461 in unfair dismissal compensation by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).

At a work meeting on 12 January 2017 the man, who was working as a horticulturalist was advised he was being made redundant – straight after his boss congratulated him on the birth of his new baby. His boss then asked to clear his desk of his things and leave immediately.

The man took a legal action for unfair dismissal and the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has upheld his claim and ordered his former employer to pay him a sum of €2,461 in wrongful dismissal compensation. WRC Adjudication Officer, Pat Brady has referred the employer’s conduct during the case as “seriously unacceptable”.

The unfair dismissal compensation amount awarded would have been much greater higher if the man had not found a new job so quickly. However as he was quick to find a new, better-paid, role it meant that his precious employer was not liable for as much compensation as may have been the case.

When appearing before the WRC, the man referred to the fact that any termination during on paternity leave is automatically found to be unfair as per section 20 of the Paternity Leave and Benefit Act, 2016. The employer remarked that he was not conscious of the fact that that as employee being absent on paternity leave was an issue and the business decision to make the man redundant was due to a restructuring of his company.

Pat Brady, the WRC Adjudication Officer, said that the employer in the case had adopted a negligent attitude to the Paternity Leave and Benefit Act.

Mr Brady stated: “Then, in circumstances which could scarcely have been more insensitive, he was given one day’s notice of a meeting at which his employment is terminated and he is told to leave the premises and not to return.”

He went on to say: “However, it is the total absence of any procedures which is of more concern; the lack of proper or any notice, the lack of a selection procedure or consideration of alternatives.”

Injuries Board Compensation Settlements Increase by 8 Percent

October 5th, 2013. By Compensation News.

The value of Injuries Board compensation settlements has increased by more than 8 percent according to the six-month analysis published on the Injuries Board website.

Figures recently published on the Injuries Board website have shown an increase of more than 8 percent in the value of Injuries Board compensation settlements awarded during the first six months of 2013 in comparison with the corresponding period last year.

More than €118 million was awarded in Injuries Board compensation settlement up to June 2013, compared with €109 million in 2012, with the average settlement value also increasing (by 4 percent) to €22,349 from €21,049.

The analysis also showed a major increase in the number of applications for assessment received by the Injuries Board (16,162 – up from 14,685) and the length of time it now takes for Injuries Board compensation settlements to be processed.

Explaining the increase in Injuries Board compensation settlements, Patricia Byron – CEO of the Injuries Board – said that there had been a higher than usual volume of claims for road traffic injury compensation and a few small exceptional awards – including one for €976,000.

The proportion of Injuries Board compensation settlements awarded for road traffic accidents accounted for more than three-quarters of the accepted settlements, while less than a fifth were for public liability claims, and compensation awards for injuries at work fell once again to just under a twelfth of all applications for assessment received by the Injuries Board.

One statistic that might be of concern to Ms Byron is that the number of accepted assessments made by the Injuries Board fell once again. In the first six months of 2012, 37.2 percent of proposed Injuries Board compensation settlements were accepted by plaintiffs whereas, up to June 213, that figure had declined to 32.7 percent.

Despite more than two-thirds of personal injury claims for compensation now being resolved outside of the Injuries Board process, plaintiffs are still advised to submit applications for assessment to the Injuries Board with the assistance of a solicitor to ensure that your full entitlement to personal injury compensation is accounted for.

Woman Awarded Injury Compensation for an Office Accident

September 14th, 2013. By Compensation News.

A woman, who injured her back when the chair she was sitting on broke, has been awarded more than Au$1million in injury compensation for an office accident by a judge in Australia.

Fifty-one year old Terry Anne Downie from Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory worked as a team leader for the Community Information and Referral Service when, on behalf of her employers, she purchased office furniture – including a chair for her own use in the office – from the furniture outlet store Fyshwick.

Several months later, Terry Anne was talking on the telephone in the office, when two of the spokes on the plastic moulding at the base of her chair snapped, causing her to fall to the floor and land on her back. Unable to move, Terry Anne was taken to hospital, where it was discovered that the accident had caused a disc to swell and that Terry Anne´s immobility was caused by the disc touching a nerve root in her spine.

Doctors were unable to repair the damage to Terry Anne´s spine, and she now suffers from a permanent tingling sensation under the skin of her legs which has prevented her from maintaining a job since her accident. Her doctors believe that the formerly active Terry Anne has suffered a mental illness and sexual dysfunction as a direct result of her office accident.

Terry Anne received injury compensation for an office accident from her employer amounting to Au$190,000 in 2005 but, backed by the Community Information and Referral Service, she also made a private claim for injury compensation for an office accident against the company that imported the faulty chair from China in kit form – Jantom – and their insurers, claiming that the product was faulty when it was brought into the country in kit form.

Jantom and their insurers denied their responsibility for Terry Anne´s injuries but Judge Master David Harper, at the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court, found in favour of the plaintiff after hearing an expert testify that the plastic moulding on the base of the chair had “failed catastrophically” and had been responsible for two of the five supporting spokes breaking.

The judge awarded Terry Anne Au$933,030 injury compensation for an office accident to reflect the pain she experienced at the time of her accident and thereafter, and a further Au$112,000 to cover past medical expenses and those she is likely to incur in the present. Janton´s insurers were also ordered to repay the Community Information and Referral Service the injury compensation for an office accident that had been paid to Terry Anne in 2005.

Speaking after making the award, Judge Master David Harper said “Terry Anne has many years ahead of pain and depression. Her life is very different to the life she could have expected if it had not been for her injury. Her enjoyment of life, and the kind of life she is able to lead, have been altered immeasurably.”

Woman Awarded Compensation for Falling in Office Elevator

September 20th, 2012. By Compensation News.

A woman from Jacksonville, Florida, has been awarded 13 million dollars in compensation for an elevator fall thirteen years after her accident occurred.

Janice Beasley (41) was made the award by a jury at Duval County Courthouse after a two-week trial in which the court was told how, in May 1999, Janice was a passenger in an elevator at the office building in which she worked.

The jury were told how the elevator had malfunctioned and fallen from the twenty-third floor to the eighth and how, when an elevator engineer was summoned, rather than take Janice out of the elevator, he sent the elevator – with Janice inside of it – falling down to the basement of the building.

Due to her experience, Janice suffered multiple bruising which developed into Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and left her wheelchair-bound with partial paralysis of her left leg. Janice was also diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression as a result of her accident.

Janice filed a claim for compensation for the elevator fall against the building´s owners Highwoods Properties Inc and Schindler Elevator Company – alleging that Highwoods were responsible for the initial malfunction and Schindler Elevator Company for her second accident.

Schindler Elevator Company did not accept liability and went to great lengths to avoid going to trial. However, after a ten-year delay in court proceedings, the case was eventually heard – leading to an award of compensation for an elevator fall against both defendants amounting to just over 13 million dollars.