Young Irish Dad hopes to be reunited with family while awaiting insurer to resolve work injury claim

Dara McKay-Firth was just 29 when he damaged three discs in his back while doing heavy demolition and construction work in Sydney. The 34-year-old has spent his entire 30s dealing with back pain and awaiting follow-up appointments with specialists after four major surgeries.

The day his doctor said he could never do physical work in his industry again left him shattered. But not as shattered as the day his ex-partner and two children aged three and one returned to Ireland recently.

“The injury tipped my life completely upside down. I’ll never return to labouring and it’s the only work I have ever known. I didn’t think I’d end up needing four surgeries. After the first, I said I’d be able to return home soon but it never happened. Having no money coming in, financially we took a hit,” he said.

“We decided it was best for my family to go home. It kept dragging on and I needed more and more surgeries. My partner said she couldn’t stay, it was affecting her mental health so badly. She ended up moving out just after my son’s birth. I’m missing so many milestones in my children’s life. I have got no time frame as to how long I will need to be here. I have to remain here until my injury stabilises after all these surgeries and my treatment has finished as my doctors are based here.”

Dara decided to seek legal advice from a personal injury lawyer to help pay his medical costs, cover lost earnings and to protect his future while managing a long-term injury. His lawyer Slater and Gordon’s Samantha Ryan is investigating a negligence claim against his employer’s insurer Allianz. He wants other young people injured at work to know there is help out there.

“You do need to seek mental health support. Trying to cope with it on your own - you can’t do it. In construction, I was always open about my mental health. Everyone takes the piss and they think it doesn’t matter until you really need support. It’s a bit of joke until you get injured and you need help,” Dara said.

“For the first year or so, the employer is so nice and can’t do enough. They offer you the world. They said have you thought about becoming a foreman and going into management? I was busting my ass at work. I thought they would do right and stand by me. They try to keep you sweet for that period to make sure you don’t bring a legal claim for the first three years when it’s possible to make a negligence claim.

“I remained in the job for a while but my colleagues were having to work twice as hard to cover me working in two-man teams. I had to leave. At one point the employer offered me a factory role on less money. You don’t know any better at the time. It was work mates that said you need to find out what your legal rights are.

“You are thinking in the back of your head surely they will look after me and it is going to work out. SafeWork NSW has spoken with me about a traffic controlling gig which I couldn’t have done having to stand all day.”

Dara says he is lucky to be receiving WorkCover payments from the insurance company with such limited options for work to stay afloat.

“My message to other young people is that injuries at work can happen and they do. You don’t think an injury is going to happen to you but then it does. The pain really began to ramp up in 2018 and it got worse and worse. Eventually, I was crippled with pain. At one point, I thought it was a pinched a nerve and went to my own doctor,” he said.

“Now I can only lift one kilo and there’s no twisting, no pulling or bending in the work I can do. That rules out a lot. If your work promises to pay your medical bills or anything to prevent you lodging a claim or going on WorkCover payments, think twice about it. You don’t know what surgeries and loss of earnings are going to add up, or the impact on your future.

“Many young people are often put off lodging a WorkCover claim by their employer, their boss or colleagues. It was the best thing I could have done, as well as receiving mental health and legal support, to keep me and my family going.”

Ms Ryan said those injured at work who are represented by a lawyer often had much better outcomes for claims against the insurer than those who take advice directly from the workplace or insurer and don’t question it.

“If someone is injured in the course of carrying out their job and the workplace was found to have been negligent, then they have a right to seek compensation,” Ms Ryan said.