Thursday, November 11, 2010

Joyce Walters

Mad payouts like this and this are just gifts to those who think that the public sector is living on a different planet.

£20 million paid in compensation claims to teachers last year. What has happened to our profession?

4 comments:

Don said...

The thing that struck me as odd about the Joyce Walters claim is that unless I've mis-read the article, she was actually teaching adults. In which case, why couldn't the council have simply re-timed her class so that it didn't clash with the kids' playtime?

Anonymous said...

Don, this is indeed the case. She also worked part time. This meant that she only had 30 minutes in each day when she had noise going on in the playground. furthermore, her classroom was not that close to the playground. Not surprisingly the teachers at the school are furious about this settlement, but have been instructed not to talk to the press about it.

jut said...

"The teacher said that, as a result of the noise and disruption, she often had to repeat herself and raise her voice."

brings new meaning to 'If I had a pound for every time I had to repeat myself or raise my voice when teaching'

Cabbage said...

The Joyce Walters case does indeed look like a ridiculously huge payout for an injury which, while permanent and likely to have an impact on her happiness and quality of life, is unlikely to be totally lifechanging or cause any real suffering or misery. I don't understand why the council agreed to pay such a massive sum; would that really have been the payout they'd have been ordered to make if it had gone to court?

It's also unclear whether Joyce Walters was at fault or not for her own injury, and if so, to what extent. I gather from the article that the damage was progressive and she was aware of it - her employers could, I'm sure, have argued that she should've come to them when she first realised harm was being done and that because of her failure to do so, any injury she suffered thereafter is her own fault and not deserving of compensation.

The 'Sussex teacher who slipped' story I'm less sure about. The article talks about nerve damage but doesn't give any further detail, which mean we don't know whether it's something totally inconsequential or whether she's seriously disabled and has lost mobility. What's more, it's an insurance payout, not a damages payout after suing, so what's the problem?