Teachers and school staff claim £200,000 for injuries at work

Published on Thursday 14 May 2009 09:42

NEARLY £200,000 has been paid out to Lothian teachers and school staff in compensation for accidents including slipping on food and tripping on a school bag.

All four Lothians councils have paid out thousands of pounds to employees claiming for injuries suffered in the region's schools.

The city council has paid out the most over the past four years – a massive 106,650 to just 13 employees, averaging out at 8,200 per claim.

As previously revealed, Midlothian Council parted with 38,241 for claims including falling over a bin, tripping on bouncy castle ropes and a piano being dropped on someone's foot.

West Lothian, meanwhile, paid 31,312 to employees including a facilities manager who was injured while opening a roller shutter, a classroom assistant who had a door fall on them and a teacher who slipped on food in the dinner hall.

In East Lothian, which had claims totalling 12,300, employees were compensated for slipping on "greasy" floors, tripping over a school bag strap and slipping on water in the school kitchen.

The information was released to the Evening News under freedom of information laws, though Edinburgh refused to give a more detailed breakdown of what exactly the claims were for on the grounds of "data protection".

Susie Squire, campaign manager with the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "It's most important that staff and pupil safety is treated as a priority but we must be mindful of the growing compensation culture in many schools.

"No doubt some of these things are valid but a lot of them seem out of all proportion with the injury and ultimately the money awarded could have been spent on textbooks and teachers for the kids attending these schools."

There are still a number of outstanding claims across the four councils, including a teacher injured by a window, a nursery nurse tripping over a sand box in the playground and a facilities manager injured after moving weights in the PE room.

Council bosses also rejected a number of claims made by school staff since 2004, including a claim by a headteacher who hit their head on a box, a kitchen assistant who slipped on a discarded fruit segment, a technician who lost the tips of two fingers using a circular saw and a support assistant who injured their back helping a pupil out of a swimming pool.

When contacted by the Evening News, all the councils defended their decisions and said they took every care to ensure staff safety.