Meat factory worker awarded €415,0000 over back injury

A meat factory worker has been awarded €415,0000 damages against his employer over a back injury suffered at work which left him with “a miserable existence”.

Making the award at the High Court, Mr Justice Kevin Cross said Mohammed Ali Saleh suffered a disc injury, now uses two crutches, is unable to work and has a "miserable existence".

In proceedings against Moyvalley Meats Ireland Ltd, Broadford, Co Kildare, the man who is a native of Egypt with an address at Mullingar, Co Westmeath, claimed he hurt his back while doing his job on January 11th, 2007 in a pluck station of the plant.

That work required a twisting manoeuvre as he took out the insides of dead animals and placed them on a hook but he was not trained for that either adequately or at all, it was claimed.

He claimed, while working on January 11th, 2007, he got a pain in his back and a diagnosis of disc prolapse and sciatica was made. The system of work was unsafe, he should not have been required to engage in a twisting manoeuvre as he did his job and there was failure to adequately instruct or train him, he claimed.

The claims were denied and Moyvalley pleaded the “on the job” training was adequate.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Cross said Mr Saleh was working in a family butcher shop in Egypt when he and eleven other butchers were recruited by Moyvalley to come to Ireland and work as butchers and slaughter hall operatives.

The judge found Moyvalley did not properly train Mr Saleh in the task required of him. He accepted expert evidence that having the operative watch a fellow employee do the job without any instructions as to the safe method of performing the turning and twisting manoeuvre was entirely inadequate.

Moyvalley was negligent and in breach of statutory duty in failing to properly train Mr Saleh, or to train him at all, in what ought to have been his correct posture to avoid strain, he held.

The judge said Mr Saleh had an MRI scan in Egypt which showed a disc prolapse and he required urgent decompression. He was diagnosed with a failed back syndrome with persistent back and leg pain and associated foot weakness, and presents as a person who has been radically compromised as a result of what occurred, he said.

The evidence was Mr Saleh had a disc injury as a result of his employment, the judge found. While Mr Saleh had some back problems before 2007 about which he complained, the acute injury was caused by the accident as Mr Saleh described it.

The judge did not accept Mr Saleh is a “malingerer” and said he suffered an acute incident which resulted in two operations which did not relieve his pain. He is left with a chronic pain and is unlikely to improve physically, he added.

He awarded total damages of €415,000, including general damages and damages for loss of earnings to date and into the future.