Nestle pays personal injury compensation after amputation

Posted 02/11/2010

Food manufacturing giant Nestle has been forced to pay personal injury compensation to a former employee who had to have her leg amputated due to a workplace accident.

Susan Ashe, 50, had been driving a small forklift truck when the accident occurred at the York premises in April 2007, the York Press reports.

A leaky roof meant she had to negotiate the vehicle around a number of bins that had been put in place to collect the water, but she lost control while going around them and slammed into a barrier.

Ms Ashe said she saw her foot facing the wrong way and was later told in hospital that she had no choice but to have an amputation below the knee.

After a lengthy legal battle with Nestle, she has now received an undisclosed sum in compensation which is to be used to make improvements to her home.

Commenting on the incident, a Nestle spokesperson said: “At Nestle we take the health and safety of our employees and workers very seriously.”

Figures from the Health and Safety Executive show that there were 233,000 reportable injuries to employees in 2009-10.