Virgin beauty therapists Jayne Evans and Michelle Hindmarch win £300k payout
Two former beauty therapists have won £300,000 in compensation from Virgin Atlantic after they developed repetitive strain injuries giving massages to businessmen.
Jayne Evans, 40, and Michelle Hindmarsh, 32, gave Shiatsu treatments to first class passengers in the airline’s Terminal 3 Clubhouse at Heathrow.
Most of the pair’s customers – who were always fully clothed – were men, whose massages required heavier hand and finger pressure involving particular strain on the thumbs.
Jayne Evans (left) received £230,972 for her injuries and Michelle Hindmarch (right) was awarded £69,458
The High Court in London heard that the women were left ‘unable to peel a carrot’ due to the pain they developed in their wrists, shoulders and back after working long shifts. Both had to give up their masseuse careers, for which they had trained since school, and were left ‘devastated’.
Virgin Atlantic accepted liability but disputed the amount of compensation due.
Mrs Evans, from Ruislip, Middlesex, was awarded £230,972, a sum which includes damages for ‘anxiety and depression’ caused by the loss of her dream job.
She now has a clerical role in Virgin’s cargo division which she finds ‘very considerably less congenial’.
Mrs Hindmarch, from Banstead, Surrey, was awarded £69,458 after she quickly found better-paid work in a different field.
Judge Martin McKenna rejected claims by a medical expert testifying for Virgin Atlantic that Mrs Hindmarch had 'consciously elaborated' some of her symptoms
Relaxation: The two women worked at the Virgin Atlantic Heathrow Club House lounge in Terminal 3
The judge said she was ‘a woman of determination and fortitude who was making the best of her situation’ and dismissed the suggestion that she was exaggerating her symptoms.
The women’s symptoms, the court was told, were caused by working over-long shifts, and by using Shiatsu pressure-point techniques with heavy pressure and at fast pace.
Sir Richard Branson founded Virgin Atlantic
Mrs Evans became distressed and was sent home after a particularly arduous session in October 2005 in which a large male client asked her to massage even harder than usual.
When she and her colleagues began complaining of their symptoms an attempt was made to restrict the number of massages to two per hour.
But this was a short respite and the mounting pressure of work soon resumed, her lawyers alleged.
Mrs Hindmarch likewise claimed that there were insufficient breaks between long therapy sessions, and that the main determinant of work pressure was flight scheduling.
From the witness box, Mrs Evans said the loss of her career had also affected her emotionally and dented her confidence.
'I always wanted to be a beauty therapist,' she told the court, adding: 'It's what I trained for when I left school and I wanted to pursue that career.'
She used to take pride in her career, but now feels 'embarrassed' if she has to tell people she works in an office, the court heard.
The muscular strain has affected the most trivial daily activity, she revealed, causing a strain to her upper arms when she washes her hair in the shower.
Although her pain has improved, she still has problems even pushing a trolley in the supermarket, or lifting objects such as heavy pots and pans.
The weakness in her wrists also makes it hard to slice up vegetables or even 'pull on a pair of jeans', the court heard.
No comments:
Post a Comment