Grassland Agro Ltd and Freshgrass Holdings Unlimited have been ordered by the High Court to pay a former employee €128,680 in compensation for a workplace injury.

Jerzy Salek was awarded €30,000 in general damages, €3,000 in agreed special damages and €95,680 for past loss of earnings.

Salek injured his back while at work on 15 April 2019. As part of his duties, he had to remove 50kg bags of fertiliser that were sealed incorrectly from a production line.

Salek lifted the bags from the line and emptied them into a grid where the contents were redistributed.

No proper risk assessment

The defence argued that Salek had been instructed “to cut the bag with a Stanley knife and tip the bag onto the floor of the gap”, as opposed to lifting them.

The factory manager told the court he had shown Salek the “tip and rip” procedure.

Salek said there was insufficient space to move around while using this method, to which the defence replied there was a brush and pan provided to clean the area.

Justice Tony O’Connor ruled that “there was no proper risk assessment, monitoring or supervision of the task expected of the plaintiff”.

Justice O’Connor also noted that the bags of fertiliser displayed the warning: “caution - two person lift required”.

It was outlined in the ruling that Salek had previously been paid €120,000 by one or other of the defendants for a neck injury that happened at the same facility in 2015.

In September 2017, Salek asked to return to work.

He was taken back in February 2018 after a safety review and with the approval of his occupational physician. Salek’s duties were divided between forklift driving and production line work.

It was noted in the ruling that the factory manager said Salek started on invalidity pension in April 2021 and returned to live in Poland in August 2022.