A former care home worker is fighting for a £100,000 industrial injuries payment – 20 years after she first won a landmark court ruling.
Christine Mullen suffered a back injury in 1985 from constant lifting, which left her unable to work at the age of 42.
But it resulted in a long-running legal battle that has still not been resolved.
Christine – described as a “modern-day heroine for working people” – made legal history in 2002 after three judges ruled that carers are entitled to make a compensation claim if they hurt themselves lifting patients.
Experts said she was lifting the equivalent of at least five tons every day.
The Department of Social Security – now the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) – refused her claim that she was entitled to a weekly industrial injuries payment.
She then took her case to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, where the judges found in her favour.
But the DWP again refused to pay up, claiming her injuries weren’t serious enough.
Christine, 78, of Rutherglen, near Glasgow, said: “I was forced to leave the job I loved because of my back injury, caused by constant lifting of patients.
“I was then told that it did not count as an industrial injury.
“Three of the highest judges in Scotland ruled that it was an industrial injury and that the DWP should pay up. They were wise words from wise men but they fell on deaf ears.”
Christine claims she is due about £96,000, plus interest, dating back to 1985. But she fears she will die before she sees the money that the court says is due to her.
Because of the constant pain from her back injury caused by trapped nerves, her health has deteriorated in recent years.
Christine says she was offered £10,000 by the DWP to drop her 2002 court action but she refused.
She spent years moving elderly and infirm residents without specialist equipment or training, leaving her with chronic back problems and having to have two hip replacements.
Prior to her 1985 injury, she had been working at a home in Castlemilk, Glasgow, for several years. Christine, who has two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, said: “I worry that I could pass away before I can get the money I am due.
“I remember sitting in my bed with my husband and saying I can’t go on much longer with this. I am not sorry that I didn’t take the £10,000. I am proud I carried on and changed the law.”
Christine has even written to the Queen in a bid to get the DWP to pay up.
She added: “The benefits should have been backdated to 1985 and I have never received a penny. The DWP officials used new rules to assess my injuries and said they were not serious enough.
“If they had used the rules when I first applied, I would have been due an average of £50 a week over the past
37 years.”
Christine is trying to persuade the Parliamentary Health Services Ombudsman to take on her case.
Christine’s lawyer Austin Lafferty said it was a gross injustice that her claim was not being paid by the DWP.
He added: “Christine is a modern-day heroine for working people. She took the government to court and changed the law so tens of thousands of manual workers, carers and nurses can now claim industrial disablement benefit when they had been disqualified before.
“No matter how many doors are shut in her face, Christine will keep the fight alive. She deserves the benefit she is entitled to.”
The Department of Work and Pensions was asked to comment on the case but did not respond.
