The equivalent of £1,250 per day has been paid out by the Northern Ireland Civil Service over the last five years in relation to workplace injuries. A BBC report has revealed a total of £2.3 million in claims for everything from stress to exposure to hogweed.
The Department for Regional Development (DRD) proved to be the most costly department, with 80 successful claims against them, paying out £778,498 since August 2003. Such claims include £35,000 being paid to an employee where the hazard was described as a "cabinet base." No further information was given. A spokesperson for the DRD commented, "The Department is committed to providing training, personal protection equipment and suitable work equipment to all staff, but this can never fully prevent accidents. The statistics confirm a pattern of a low number of claims when analysed in this context of the thousands of work operations undertaken annually by DRD staff."
Other claims of note include £300,000 paid to a Department of Finance and Personnel employee after they fell down a flight of stairs, £3,500 paid to someone working for the Department of the Environment (DoE) after a step in a historical building gave way, and numerous claims across various departments for leg, back and neck injuries and several others relating to dermatitis. Perhaps most intriguingly, a Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) employee was paid £10,000 compensation following exposure to hogweed, the sap of which is highly caustic when exposed to sunlight and can result in severe burns with long-term effects.
