Ryanair employee awarded €10,000 over shoulder injury sustained at work

A Ryanair employee, who claimed she had injured her shoulder after stretching to place a number of boxes on high shelves, has been awarded €10,000 damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Judge John O’ Connor heard from Csilla Andrasine-Magyar that she had been filing written aircraft documentation into boxes and placing them on a number of high shelves, when she had injured herself in January, 2016.

Ms Andrasine-Magyar told the court two weeks ago she believed her injury had happened in January as there had been a backlog of documentation to be filed following Christmas.

She said she had waited until June 2017 to take legal action against Ryanair as she had hoped her injury would clear up but instead it had continued to get worse.

Judge O’ Connor had been told by Ms Andrasine-Magyar that she had restricted movement in her shoulder and had struggled to brush or wash her hair or carry shopping bags. He heard she had been diagnosed with a condition known as “frozen shoulder”, a disorder that caused her shoulder joint to swell, making it very painful for her to move her arm.

Ms Andrasine-Magyar had told the court that she had chosen not to use a footstool, which had been provided by Ryanair to assist employees reaching up to higher shelves, as she felt it would have been unsafe to use it.

On Thursday, in a reserved judgement, Judge O’ Connor said it had been Ryanair’s responsibility to ensure Ms Andrasine-Magar had been provided with a safe place to work. He accepted that lifting boxes over her head had played a role in the development of her shoulder symptoms.

He said he also accepted that if Ms Andrasine-Magyar had used the footstool provided for her, the lifting of the boxes would not have led to her injury. He had found it remarkable that no one from Ryanair had instructed her to use the footstool that had been there for her.

Judge O’ Connor said Ryanair had been negligent in failing to have carried out an adequate risk assessment with regard to the way Ms Andrasine-Magyar had been carrying out her work.

He said she herself had also been negligent in not using the footstool provided, the use of which had been inherently safe to do so, despite her misgivings.

Judge O’ Connor said Ryanair and their employee had each been equally liable for the incident.

He assessed full liability at €20,000 but, based on Ms Andrasine-Magyar’s contributory negligence, he cut her damages award to €10,000.