David Bell of the Personal Injury Department of Irwin Mitchell Scotland is presently representing a client who’s employers breached their duty of care both statutory and common law as they were aware of his previous medical history and placed the client in a position to harm his health.
Our client Albert (not his real name) had previously suffered from pneumonia between mid-January 2009 and late February when he was off work for a period of 6 weeks. On that occasion, he had been thoroughly soaked when unloading a consignment of windows in the course of his employment.
He had been admitted to hospital on that occasion and his employers were aware for the reason for his absence and also received sickness certificates confirming that.
Albert was sent to an area office which leaked badly and accumulated pools of water on the floor after each rainfall.
Albert made regular complaints to the Operations Manager when he attended the main office of his employers which, we understand, was regularly on a Tuesday and Thursday. Our client had reminded the operations manager that he had already had a bout of pneumonia incurred in the course of his employment and that he hoped to avoid another. We understand that the operations manager acknowledged that and had advised our client that he would arrange for the owners of the property to send "someone" to address the problem.
We understand that Albert’s employers were well aware of the problem and regularly had to use a wet/dry vacuum cleaner to suck up the water as it accumulated.
Our client has now recovered from his bout of pneumonia but has since left the company. The claim is ongoing.
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