Case of Badly Burnt Woman Highlights Safety and Justice Double Jeopardy for Workers

BIRMINGHAM, England, July 6, 2011 -

The case of a cook badly burnt in an accident at work
demonstrates the dangers for workers from proposed government cuts
to health and safety cover and from changes “to no win-no fee”
arrangements - say Birmingham based DBS Law.

Mrs Sudesh Bala was badly injured while working for Shobha UK Ltd,
a catering company in Luton, on 9^th October 2010. She
received severe burns to her back, buttocks and groin when she
slipped into an industrial cooking pot containing 50kg of steaming
hot chicken curry.

Mrs Bala was working on an urgent order to serve 500 people at
an exhibition in Birmingham’s NEC. One of just three staff on the
premises, Mrs Bala fell into a cooking pot while alone in the
kitchen. She was unable to get out of the pot or get the attention
of her colleagues for some 10 minutes.

Mrs Bala’s colleagues were afraid to call the emergency services
and waited for half an hour for her husband Naresh to come and call
an ambulance, he says “I was horrified when I
saw how badly hurt Sudesh was, her skin was dripping off her like
candle wax“. Mrs Bala was taken to Luton and
Dunstable hospital where she was assessed and then transferred to a
specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.

Mrs Bala was treated for her injuries with extensive skin
grafts. She has been unable to work since the accident and the
experience has left her with mental scars on top of the physical
ones.

Mrs Bala had worked at the Shobha UK Ltd for 10 years says
during this time says she didn’t receive any health and safety
training at all during her employment and was even required to
supply her own safety footwear.

Shobha UK Ltd has since gone into liquidation and Mrs Bala is
seeking compensation from Ageas the company’s insurers. Ageas is
denying liability and the case is likely to go to court.

DBS Law, Mrs Bala’s solicitors, has taken her case on a no win
no fee basis despite the risk of putting the case in front of a
judge when the defendant denies liability. This is only possible
because of the existence of a “success fee” paid to lawyers by the
insurer if they fail to convince the judge their client was not
responsible for the accident.

The Government proposes to abolish this success fee, in its
controversial Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders
Bill, published 21^st June. This would increase the
financial risk to solicitors and make it harder to take on cases
like Mrs Bala’s.

DBS Law Managing Director Rob Bhol said,
“This is a shocking case, one that demonstrates
the dangers working people face where health and
safetyis neglected. Sadly we can expect
to see many more of these accidents and health and safety
inspections are cut by the government and bad employers are free to
cut corners to increase profits.“

“At the same time government changes to the
funding arrangements for compensation cases will severely reduce
the number of victims who can get justice after an accident caused
by their employer‘s
negligence.” 

For further information call Richard O’Brien
+44-(0)7969-274-298