A judge at the Circuit Civil Court has awarded €15,000 compensation for a Dunnes employee injured at work by a tray that fell from a bread trolley.
In March 2012, the nineteen year-old employee was working in Tallaght branch of Dunnes Stores when she was told to go to the stockroom and bring out a bread trolley. As she starting moving the two-metre high trolley, the tray on the top shelf fell out of its runners and struck the woman on her head.
The employee was given first aid by a colleague and then attended the emergency department of Tallaght Hospital. An x-ray revealed no serious injury, but she was detained overnight as a precaution. Since the accident, the employee claims to have continued suffering headaches and neck pain.
A claim for compensation for a Dunnes employee injured at work was made. The store accepted liability for the woman´s injury, but contested how much compensation was being claimed. The case subsequently went to the Circuit Civil Court for the assessment of damages.
At the damages hearing, Judge Terence O´Sullivan was told that the former employee – who is now twenty-three years of age and works as a hairdresser – had been knocked to the ground by the falling tray and had felt dizzy afterwards. Her counsel claimed that she had suffered a significant injury.
However, counsel representing Dunnes Stores argued that the cause of her ongoing neck pain was not her accident in 2012, but her current hairdressing job. Judge O´Sullivan noted that the former employee had not attended her doctor for three years or made any effort to seek physiotherapy.
The former employee´s counsel told Judge O´Sullivan that his client had self-medicated with painkillers bought from her local pharmacy, but the judge commented she had done a poor job of looking after herself if she had indeed suffered a significant injury as was being claimed.
The judge awarded the woman €15,000 compensation for a Dunnes employee injured at work, saying it was the conclusion of the court that she “wasn´t that badly hurt. The judge also gave Dunnes Stores leave to consider an appeal of the award provided an amount of €10,000 was paid immediately.