by Matthew Woodcock

A MOTHER-of-three has been awarded £1,000 in damages after spraining her wrist while lifting a bread tray at a York supermarket's in-store bakery.

Margaret Joyce, of Paradise Field, Easingwold, suffered three months of pain and swelling after the accident at the Tesco store in Clifton Moor.

Mrs Joyce, 45, who is 5ft 1in tall, told York County Court she suffered the injury after being forced to stand on her tiptoes to lift off the top tray of loaves from a ten-high stack in the bakery.

She said one of her colleagues would usually have helped her when the stack was so high, but they were very short staffed that day.

Mrs Joyce said she felt a sharp pain in her right wrist during the lift which made her drop the tray. A first-aider then treated her from the next-door counter.

Her injury made household tasks difficult and caused some discomfort, but she was able to continue working at the store.

The court heard that the supermarket giant had failed to provide an adequate risk assessment of handling procedures in the bakery in order to reduce the likelihood of an injury.

The accident happened at about 6am, on March 6, 1999.

Barrister Alan Weir, representing Tesco, said Mrs Joyce was "fully aware" of the tray's weight and height of the stack and could have used some common sense not to attempt the lift.

"She was completely aware of the risks involved," he said.

He added that Mrs Joyce's written statement differed from her court evidence over whether she dropped the crate of bread on the floor.

Craig Kelly, who is now the manager of the store's bakery, told the court he was "unaware" of a handling risk assessment in the department at the time.

Judge Simon Hawksworth ordered Tesco to pay Mrs Joyce £1,000 compensation and £4,782 costs.

He said: "The duty of care is not on the employee but the employer."

Mrs Joyce, who still works at the Tesco store, told the Evening Press outside court: "I'm very pleased with the decision.

"Hopefully risk assessments will now be carried out so this doesn't happen again."

Updated: 11:22 Friday, January 17, 2003