Former Airline Employee Loses Workers’ Comp Claim
Jennifer Billock November 17, 2015
A former check-in clerk has lost a court battle with Ryanair over whether she should get damages for an injury.
Former Ryanair employee Agnieszka Spyra injured her back while on the job in 2011 and claimed damages from her employer. The case finally came to a close on November 16, ruling in favor of Ryanair.
When Spyra injured initially injured her back, she told her doctor she was sitting, turning around to lift and tag a bag on the conveyor belt. She waited six months to meet with her physician about the incident, The Irish Times reported. A full year after her accident, she reported it to the Injuries Board, again stating in her application that she had been sitting at the time.
However, when it came down to the actual court case, this past March and this week, she told the court she had been standing, and while she bent down and turned left to lift the back, she felt a sharp pain in her lower back.
Spyra suggested the accident was due to her uniform of “high heels and a tight skirt,” the Times reported. The judge threw out that possibility, as Spyra had already admitted to sitting during the incident, and further dismissed the case because Spyra received proper training from Ryanair on the safe way to lift luggage.
Spyra is now responsible for paying legal costs incurred by both Ryanair and Mk Human Resources. She does, however, plan to appeal the decision, so the judge has given her a temporary stay on paying those fees.
[Photo: Getty]
Sitting / standing? As Mark Twain once said, or wrote "if you tell the truth, you never have to remember anything." She will probably have to work until she is 104 years old to pay off Ryanair's court cost on her salary.