Elderly Courier Receives $16,500 Compensation After Workplace Fall

An Israeli court has approved a NIS 60,000 (approximately $16,500) settlement for a 74-year-old courier who suffered a head injury and fractured arm after falling at a printing house.

The courier, identified as 'G', was on a delivery for the law firm that employed him when his shoe caught on a raised wooden plank on a pathway at the printing house. He claims the plank was improperly secured, causing him to lose balance and fall. Employees from the printing house and an attorney from his firm witnessed the incident and G was taken to Ichilov Hospital.

Following the accident, G's injuries were recognized as a workplace accident by the National Insurance Institute, which awarded him approximately NIS 140,000 (around $38,000) for disability and nursing care. However, the insurance company for the printing house denied liability, disputing G's account of the fall and suggesting he had pre-existing instability issues. They cited the employer's claims of prior falls and a paramedic report describing the event as a 'technical fall'.

G's attorney, Lital Biber-Haykin, argued that the instability claim was absurd, questioning why a firm would employ someone prone to frequent falls as a courier. She suggested a work dispute between G and his employer might have influenced the employer's and employees' lack of cooperation regarding the accident.

The lawsuit was filed at the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court. The settlement, approved by the court, provides G with an additional NIS 60,000, bringing his total compensation from the National Insurance Institute and the settlement to approximately NIS 200,000 (around $55,000). Biber-Haykin noted that funds received from the National Insurance Institute are typically deducted from civil claims to prevent double compensation and allow the institute to recoup its payments.