One of our West Sussex branch Teaching Assistant members was awarded a £27,000 payout after intervention by UNISON’s solicitors Thompson’s.
This followed an injury on the way to work. She was knocked-off her bicycle, hitting her head on the car’s bonnet. She broke her wrist but also suffered from ‘postconcussion syndrome’, causing her to feel exhausted and unable to concentrate. She couldn’t read or use computers and took several months to recover.
She had already taken independent legal advice (they would have taken 30% of any award), but was told about UNISON’s free legal support through Thompsons solicitors. Thompsons doggedly pursued her claim, including tackling bureaucratic obstacles largely due to questionable service from Capita.
Capita were responsible for administering sick pay insurance readjustments from the £30,000 award back to the council, totalling £3,000. They were poor at responding to the solicitor’s enquiries, unnecessarily slowing down the case. It took an intervention from the council’s Legal Services team to get any sense. Fortunately, following advice from Occupational Health and Thompsons, our member phased her returned to work four months later and is now working full-time.
It shows one of the benefits of UNISON membership. Our legal team at Thompsons do not operate like ‘no win no fee’ solicitors, and will offer sound legal advice to our members free-of-charge on both work and non-work related matters. Accidents can happen to anyone any time. UNISON membership can help alleviate stress in difficult situations. Effective legal support is just one way our members benefit.
Members get to keep 100% of their compensation, and get advice from solicitors who really understand the world of work and employer obligations, and want justice rather than their commission!
All UNISON members qualify for this support for accidents and personal injuries, inside and outside the workplace. Your UNISON membership also covers your partner for injuries outside the workplace. Yes, that’s right – your partner can use the service based on your membership if they have an accident outside their workplace.
This is just one of a range of great benefits of membership. Please do all you can to encourage others to join us.