Teacher receives £230,000 after slipping on ketchup at secondary school

A teacher who slipped on a discarded ketchup sachet has been awarded £230,000 (about 86.5 million HUF) in compensation. The man was walking towards the staff room when he lost his footing on an ‘unspecified gooey substance’, suffering a severe injury. It has now emerged the substance was tomato ketchup.

The settlement was paid by Essex county council. It was revealed in a freedom of information request, although the secondary school where the incident took place has yet to be named. The sum was part of more than £1million of compensation payments made to injured teachers by the council over the past three years.

A teachers’ union spokesman rejected suggestions of a ‘compensation culture’ in schools. Jerry Glazier said: ‘As a union we will support members who pursue claims for personal injury when we feel they have been poorly treated by management in schools. Schools are generally very safe environments but employers have a duty of care to protect both teachers and pupils.’

The incident occurred on March 18, 2008, but a claim was not submitted until March 10, 2011. That was just eight days before the legal time limit for personal injury claims was due to run out on the case. Experts advised the council the claim could have cost up to £500,000 if taken to trial. Other deals revealed included a £110,000 settlement to a member of staff who suffered a spinal injury after slipping on a wet floor twice in one day.

source: www.metro.co.uk

discarded – eldobott
sachet – kis zacsi (cukor, ketchup, majonéz)
compensation – kártérítés
staff room – tanári
to lose one’s footing – elveszti a lába alól a talajt
gooey – trutymós
county council – megyei tanács
freedom of information request – információszabadsági kérelem
teachers’ union – tanári szakszervezet
to support – támogatni
claim – reklamáció, igénybejelentés, kárigény
poorly treated – rosszul bánnak velük
to occur – megtörténik, bekövetkezik
to submit – leadni (kérelmet, jelentkezést)
time limit – időkorlát
to take to trial – perre vinni
spinal injury – gerincsérülés

Match the words with the definitions.

answers: 1-c 2-e 3-a 4-b 5-d

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-GB
X-NONE
X-NONE

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