TRADE unionists won a landmark victory yesterday against a care-home company whose health and safety failings led to a worker suffering serious injuries.

GMB Scotland had fought a five-year battle with Cordia, an arms-length company run by Glasgow City Council, after careworker Tracey Kennedy was injured in a fall in 2010.

Ms Kennedy was visiting a terminally ill patient when she slipped and fell on an icy path which had not been gritted and injured her wrist.

The case against Cordia was initially successful in the Court of Session but was later overturned by the Inner House of the Court of Session, which ruled that the risk of falling on ice arose “from the ordinary facts of life in Scotland.”

Now the Supreme Court has taken the decision to uphold the original ruling that Cordia was to blame for Ms Kennedy’s accident as it failed to carry out a risk assessment or provide suitable footwear to staff.

GMB organiser for Cordia Louise Gilmour praised the ruling as a “a great decision for workers,” adding that “Cordia cannot run away from its responsibility to assess risks faced by homecare workers and provide adequate protective equipment to their staff.”

She said the ruling “deals a blow to the past Conservative government’s attempts to stop workers from receiving full compensation when they suffer an accident at work.”

Cordia has yet to comment on the case.