Former Amalgamated worker awarded $.5M after workplace accident

2026-03-24 - 01:14

Senior Reporter sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt A former employee of Amalgamated Security Services Ltd has been awarded more than half a million dollars in compensation following a workplace accident that left him with serious back injuries. The incident occurred on September 13, 2019, at the company’s Prison Transport Division compound located along Golden Grove Road, Piarco. The 39-year-old claimant, who worked as an estate constable and driver, filed a claim through his attorneys Imran Khan and Saajida Narine, seeking damages for the injuries he sustained. The claim alleged negligence on the part of the company, its servants and/or agents. When the matter came before Justice Westmin James on January 5, 2024, liability for the incident was admitted. The case then proceeded to a contested trial focused on the assessment of damages and quantum. The trial for damages was heard on December 1, 2025, during which medical experts testified on the extent of the claimant’s injuries. The defendant challenged the severity of the injuries and denied that the claimant’s lower back condition was caused by the incident, maintaining instead that the injuries were minor. However, following the conclusion of the trial and consideration of the medical evidence, the defendant accepted the seriousness of the injuries. A consent order was entered on March 17 before Justice James, with the company agreeing to pay the claimant $520,000. According to documents filed in the matter, the claimant had been employed with the company for approximately six years before the incident and transported prisoners from the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca and the Remand Yard in Port-of-Spain to various courts. On the day of the incident, he was seated on a metal pipe frame, conversing with a co-worker, when another employee began reversing one of the company’s 24-seater buses, which suddenly “picked up a sudden burst of speed.” In his witness statement, the claimant said he only had time to shout to his colleague to run before the bus reversed into the iron pipe frame, “sending me flying up in the air. I then fell to the ground on my back. The iron pipe came down and hit me on the back of my left leg. I was in a lot of pain.” He said he initially believed his leg was broken and experienced numbness from his left side down to his toes. He was taken for medical treatment, and following his discharge from the hospital, he continued experiencing pain that restricted his movement. He said he visited several doctors, continued treatment, including physiotherapy and underwent multiple tests. He has been advised to undergo corrective surgery in the form of a lumbar discectomy. “I want my life back. I want to do the surgery. I no longer want to feel this pain and discomfort. I no longer want to feel helpless. I want to start back working. Once I could get back as close as possible to what I used to be before the accident, I would be happy,” he said in his affidavit. Through his attorneys, he sent a pre-action protocol letter to the company in May 2021. Commenting on the matter, Khan said the claimant encountered several issues in his fight for justice, including having to pursue action against the National Insurance Board (NIB) for non-payment of injury benefits due to him. Through his office, Khan said they filed an appeal to the High Court against the refusal of the NIB to pay him his benefits, resulting in NIB eventually conceding in the matter and paying him the benefits due. Khan said, “This matter is symptomatic of the challenges that the grassroots and underprivileged have to face in society in receiving justice, in that they have less access to resources but often times have to take on much bigger giants, in this case, his employer as well as the NIB previously, to force an equitable result.”