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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Bangla awarded $1mil !! NSmen ?!</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"></TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>6/8,10/9, forums.delphiforums.com/anymos (ANYMOS) <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>10:24 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right>(1 of 1) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"></TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>35059.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>___________$1M awarded to paralysed Bangladeshi[/size]
Straits Times Singapore, 24 Jun, 2010, Thursday
Amount thought to be record sum for worker whose future is in ruins
By K. C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent
A BAG of cement which fell on a young Bangladeshi construction worker two years ago left him paralysed from the waist down.
It also wrecked his plans to get married when his girlfriend’s parents pulled the plug after hearing the news.
That was then. Now, Mr Hafizul Islam Kofil Uddin, who turned 29 earlier this month, will get what might well be the highest amount awarded by a court to a foreign worker permanently disabled after an industrial accident.
Mr Hafizul became a paraplegic in August 2008 after a 50kg bag of cement fell on his back and fractured his spine while he was working inside a 4.5m-deep trench in Woodlands Ave3.
Future shattered and unable to ever walk again, Mr Hafizul made the bold move of rejecting work injury compensation of $182,000, authorised by the Commissioner for Labour.
Instead, he engaged a lawyer and took the matter to the High Court.
On Tuesday, the court ordered his employer, Poh Huat Heng Construction, and two other firms involved in the works, to pay him about $910,000 – a sum meant to cover his loss of future earnings, the cost of having a full-time nurse, and other medical expenses.
The award had been $1million, but he was found to be 10per cent liable for the accident, although it is not known why he had to shoulder some of the blame.
However, he bore much hardship back in his hometown of Dhaka while awaiting the outcome of the case.
When he arrived back in Bangladesh in a wheelchair after spending five months at a Singapore hospital, his long-time girlfriend Sonia Akter broke down.
‘Sonia met me at the airport… she burst into tears when she saw me,’ he recalled, in documents to back his case.
She said she still wanted to marry him. But her parents intervened and called off the wedding. The couple had been due to tie the knot two months after the accident.
Although Mr Hafizul has spoken to Sonia over the phone many times since his return, her parents forbade her to visit him. ‘When I bring up the subject of marriage, she always tells me to wait patiently,’ he said.
‘When I tell Sonia to forget me and marry someone else, she tells me that she would rather die instead of marrying someone else,’ he said. ‘This is emotionally very, very painful for me.’
He added that he was very upset and alone and felt miserable, as he had nobody with him. His mother died in September last year, while his older brother is married and lives elsewhere. His 75-year-old father is too frail to look after him.
Initially, the family hired a caregiver to look after him at home, but when the caregiver did not show up for work for days on end, it left him helpless in bed, soiled and incontinent.
He now resides in a nursing home and needs help with basic daily activities like bathing, eating and putting on clothes.
News of the compensation amount should be welcome relief. His lawyer Kamala Dewi, of Yeo Perumal Mohideen Law Corporation, informed him of the court’s decision through an interpreter.
Lawyers interviewed by The Straits Times said the compensation amount given to Mr Hafizul is the highest reported amount given to a foreign worker in an industrial accident. Previous highs have hovered around the $500,000 mark.
Some cases may have been settled out of court and any higher amounts would not have been made public.
‘The modest salary of the foreign worker and the lesser costs of future medical treatment in his home country notwithstanding, this award is the highest,’ said lawyer K. Anparasan, of Khattar- Wong Partnership.
The lawyers also explained why the award by the Commissioner for Labour was so much lower.
Under the Work Injury Compensation Act, compensation is worked out based purely on loss of future income and medical expenses, the latter capped at $25,000.
But in a civil court case, the victim can be compensated with higher amounts for medical expenses, and awarded damages for pain and suffering, and nursing care costs.
vijayan
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Straits Times Singapore, 24 Jun, 2010, Thursday
Amount thought to be record sum for worker whose future is in ruins
By K. C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent
A BAG of cement which fell on a young Bangladeshi construction worker two years ago left him paralysed from the waist down.
It also wrecked his plans to get married when his girlfriend’s parents pulled the plug after hearing the news.
That was then. Now, Mr Hafizul Islam Kofil Uddin, who turned 29 earlier this month, will get what might well be the highest amount awarded by a court to a foreign worker permanently disabled after an industrial accident.
Mr Hafizul became a paraplegic in August 2008 after a 50kg bag of cement fell on his back and fractured his spine while he was working inside a 4.5m-deep trench in Woodlands Ave3.
Future shattered and unable to ever walk again, Mr Hafizul made the bold move of rejecting work injury compensation of $182,000, authorised by the Commissioner for Labour.
Instead, he engaged a lawyer and took the matter to the High Court.
On Tuesday, the court ordered his employer, Poh Huat Heng Construction, and two other firms involved in the works, to pay him about $910,000 – a sum meant to cover his loss of future earnings, the cost of having a full-time nurse, and other medical expenses.
The award had been $1million, but he was found to be 10per cent liable for the accident, although it is not known why he had to shoulder some of the blame.
However, he bore much hardship back in his hometown of Dhaka while awaiting the outcome of the case.
When he arrived back in Bangladesh in a wheelchair after spending five months at a Singapore hospital, his long-time girlfriend Sonia Akter broke down.
‘Sonia met me at the airport… she burst into tears when she saw me,’ he recalled, in documents to back his case.
She said she still wanted to marry him. But her parents intervened and called off the wedding. The couple had been due to tie the knot two months after the accident.
Although Mr Hafizul has spoken to Sonia over the phone many times since his return, her parents forbade her to visit him. ‘When I bring up the subject of marriage, she always tells me to wait patiently,’ he said.
‘When I tell Sonia to forget me and marry someone else, she tells me that she would rather die instead of marrying someone else,’ he said. ‘This is emotionally very, very painful for me.’
He added that he was very upset and alone and felt miserable, as he had nobody with him. His mother died in September last year, while his older brother is married and lives elsewhere. His 75-year-old father is too frail to look after him.
Initially, the family hired a caregiver to look after him at home, but when the caregiver did not show up for work for days on end, it left him helpless in bed, soiled and incontinent.
He now resides in a nursing home and needs help with basic daily activities like bathing, eating and putting on clothes.
News of the compensation amount should be welcome relief. His lawyer Kamala Dewi, of Yeo Perumal Mohideen Law Corporation, informed him of the court’s decision through an interpreter.
Lawyers interviewed by The Straits Times said the compensation amount given to Mr Hafizul is the highest reported amount given to a foreign worker in an industrial accident. Previous highs have hovered around the $500,000 mark.
Some cases may have been settled out of court and any higher amounts would not have been made public.
‘The modest salary of the foreign worker and the lesser costs of future medical treatment in his home country notwithstanding, this award is the highest,’ said lawyer K. Anparasan, of Khattar- Wong Partnership.
The lawyers also explained why the award by the Commissioner for Labour was so much lower.
Under the Work Injury Compensation Act, compensation is worked out based purely on loss of future income and medical expenses, the latter capped at $25,000.
But in a civil court case, the victim can be compensated with higher amounts for medical expenses, and awarded damages for pain and suffering, and nursing care costs.
vijayan
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