For chemical burns sustained to her fingers, Tanesha Fredericks who worked as a utilities cleaner, has been granted a default judgment against locally operated Trinidad oil company—Centipede Offshore (Guyana) Inc., which provides services to ExxonMobil here.
According to correspondence from the woman’s attorneys, seen by this newspaper, Centipede Offshore Inc., provided Fredericks with substandard gloves not suited for handling toxic chemicals and cleaning agents.
Attorneys Eusi Anderson and Khawan Rodney said that instead of being given “industrial strength gloves” to do her work, Fredericks, even after repeatedly complaining, was only given surgical gloves.
After being moved around to various departments on the sea vessel, the lawyers said that it was subsequent to returning onshore that their client started to feel numb in all her fingers and after visiting the hospital it was confirmed that the reason she had lost feeling in her fingers was because of chemical burns from toxic chemicals which she handled on her job.
The lawyers said that doctors have told Fredericks that because of the damage caused to the nerves in her fingers, she would never again be able to feel her fingers and that “her disability is permanent.”
Fredericks in her Statement of Claim (SOC) sought an order that $1M be granted to her as default judgment for what she said was negligence on the part of her employer for the burns she suffered on October 28th and 29th, 2020.
According to court documents seen by this newspaper, she also sought special damages for medical expenses, loss of income, loss of earning capacity, interest thereon, court costs and any other order the Court deemed just to grant.
With no defence having been filed by the Defendant (Centipede Inc.,) High Court Judge Fidela Corbin-Lincoln in a ruling handed down last month, granted Fredericks a default judgement
The judge has, however, set October 21st of this year for assessment of the quantum of damages that will be awarded.
Anderson and Rodney have said that their client was being paid less than 30% of what Centipede Inc., pays similar employees in Trinidad doing the same job and that she had not been given the “same high quality equipment” as her Trinidadian counterparts on the vessel.
They said too, that she was “ultimately fired after begging for better gloves and working conditions” and was never paid any compensation for her injuries.
They added, too, that she had never previously had any issues with the Company; “was always punctual and professional,” and that there were no issues which could have resulted in her being fired.
