A teacher won £200,000 in compensation after slipping on a grape last year and another was awarded £100,000 after falling on spilt food in a school canteen reports IOSH.
These are just two examples of claims in 2010 when teachers won millions of pounds in compensation for accidents, injuries, assaults or unfair dismissal.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT), representing the teacher who slipped on the grape left on a stairwell, said the six-figure award covered loss of earnings and pension. He received the sum due to the injury aggravating his hernia, and eventually chronic pain meant he could not work.
“Evidence showed that the school were aware of littering problems around the school but had not taken action to prevent or minimise it,” the union said.
Another NUT member also won compensation for slipping on a grape in a corridor, according to figures in the Times Educational Supplement. She won £20,000 after fracturing her hip.
The NASUWT teaching union said its members were handed £10.5 million for compensation cases completed in 2010. NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: “What this figure illustrates is the cost to the public purse of employers’ poor or discriminatory employment practices and failure to pay due regard to health and safety.”
Source: IOSH
