£38 million for injured UNISON members

Public services union UNISON secured over £38 million compensation for members injured at work last year, after settling over 4,300 claims for personal injury.

The settlements included a large number of claims for back injuries, which nurses, care assistants and local government workers are particularly at risk of. The awards included £140,000 for a back injury sustained by a nursing auxilliary from lifting heavy patients over a period of time, and £70,000 for a theatre sister who hurt her back lifting a large patient and then subsequently damaged a disc when she slipped on a wet floor.

The figures were released just prior to the results of a survey of public sector workers carried out for UNISON by Labour Research Department, which showed that 81% of workers regularly or sometimes experienced work-related back pain. See pages 7-10.