GEORGE TOWN, Grand Cayman (CNS) -- A customs tally clerk who three years ago suffered two injuries in one day while handling a heavy parcel is suing the Cayman Islands Government.
Katherine Phillips filed a suit last month, claiming that she suffered a back injury trying to manoeuvre a heavy parcel from a high shelf and then, while carrying the same package, ruptured a previous operating wound when a heavy door with no window swung out at her as a colleague came through.
In the Grand Court case Phillips (41) claims the accidents were caused by the “negligence and or breach of statutory duty and or breach of a duty of care at common law” of government and is seeking damages and costs.
Placing the blame on her employers, she says they caused her to handle a parcel that was too heavy in the circumstances and was too high. The claim also states that customs failed to observe the fact that she was recovering from surgery from just a few months earlier and she ought not to have been required to handle a parcel that was too heavy or to be lifted from such a height.
By causing her to carry the heavy parcel from one room to another using both hands, she could not avoid injury when the door opened into her. The suit also states that the door was heavy and hard to push with no glass for visibility and a mechanism that operated in a manner likely to cause injury. As a result, Phillips says, she was not provided with a safe place or system of work to avoid the risk of injury, as well as a number of other failings in the workplace, that hampered access from one room to another and the use of trolleys.
According to the claim, Phillips ruptured surgical wound was dressed and treated and healed after some four months. But she also suffered a soft tissue injury to her lower back and the lifting injury exacerbated previous back trouble. Phillips states that she has since continued to suffer pain in her back and legs, with her range of movement limited. She also has disturbed sleep, takes pain killing medication and has repeatedly taken time off work, remaining on reduced working hours.