{"id":8104,"date":"2016-03-11T16:23:01","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T16:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8104"},"modified":"2016-03-11T16:33:58","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T16:33:58","slug":"feel-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8104","title":{"rendered":"Justice result"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The benefits of being a union member may not be immediately obvious, but for many, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing short of life-changing.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor one Unite member an accident in work meant that he would no longer be physically able to provide for his family \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe 58-year-old foundry worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, went to work one day just as he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done for years, not knowing that it would be his last. A falling metal component crushed his left leg; it was amputated from above the knee soon after.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Unite member isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t alone in being injured at work \u00e2\u20ac\u201c statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)<\/a> have revealed that more than half a million people were injured in work last year alone, with 142 injured fatally.<\/p>\n

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Immeasurable cost<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Workplace injuries cost the economy billions each year, but the cost to people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s livelihoods \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and to their physical and emotional wellbeing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is immeasurable.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor the foundry worker who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lost his leg, losing his ability to work was compounded by the fact that his wife is disabled, too.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am currently experiencing large amounts of pain and suffer from the psychological effects of my accident,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am slowly coming to terms with my injury which means I will never work again.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI still have to use a wheelchair, when I am unable to use my prosthetic leg, to get around and this has caused huge problems as my wife also has a disability. We are heavily dependent on our family to help with ongoing care and support.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThose who sustain permanent injuries while at work often have no recourse to justice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the fees involved in mounting many personal injury claims are out of reach for all but the very few.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnd even if a claim is won, much of that compensation is ploughed back into legal fees, leaving victims with little but the lasting physical and emotional pain of their injury.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe foundry worker, however, had someone to fight his corner thanks to his union membership with Unite.
\nHe received full legal representation for his personal injury claim from Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legal services and won \u00c2\u01411.6m in the process, of which he kept 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am speaking out, albeit anonymously, as without the first-class legal support provided by Unite there is no way that I could have received a settlement on this scale,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the worker said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs an individual, I would not have been able to mount this successful legal action. I am very grateful for the hard work of my legal team at Unite and Thompsons Solicitors in Newcastle, especially Paul Brown.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite legal services<\/strong> <\/em>
\nUnite regional secretary Karen Reay noted that the union\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s legal services have obtained nearly \u00c2\u014110m in personal injury compensations for members across the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside region in 2015 alone.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne hundred per cent of this impressive figure was paid in full to our members in every case, without deduction, and demonstrates the value of union membership and the importance of having access to the highest standard of specialist legal assistance,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 
\nReay emphasised that while the recent \u00c2\u01411.6m award may seem large, it pales in comparison to what the Unite member and his family have suffered.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015b[The figure] has to take into account the scale of the disability, the loss of possible future earnings, the need for special housing accommodation, the requirement for ongoing care and the provision of prosthetics for the rest of his life,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe foundry worker hopes that others learn from his experience.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI hope my case will reinforce the importance of health and safety reps in the workplace and will reduce the chances of a similar accident happening to others in the future,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\nNo one ever expects to be injured at work, but a strong union presence in your workplace makes it much less likely. This \u00e2\u20ac\u0098union safety effect\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/a> has been proven time and again \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one study found that workplaces with active union safety systems had half the number of injuries as those without.<\/p>\n

 
\nAs Unite regional officer Dave Turnbull told UniteLive last year<\/a>, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to be in the workplace without a union today. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like house insurance \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t leave your house without insuring it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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For more on Unite legal services see here<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The benefits of being a union member may not be immediately obvious, but for many, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing short of life-changing.   For one Unite member an accident in work meant that he would no longer be physically able to provide for his family \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for the rest of his life.   The 58-year-old foundry worker, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[290,495,496],"wps_subtitle":"Injured member gets legal justice ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8104"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8116,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8104\/revisions\/8116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}