Woman fails in €60,000 claim against McDonald’s over finger injury allegedly caused by dispensing sauce

A former McDonald’s employee who had to apply hundreds of dollops of mustard, ketchup and other sauces to burgers on a daily basis has lost a €60,000 damages claim against the company for an alleged repetitive strain injury.

Barrister Paul Henry O’Neill, counsel for Persion Restaurants Limited, told Judge Sinead Ní Chulachain in the Circuit Civil Court that a similar claim could not be traced back to any of McDonald’s 1,500 outlets throughout Ireland and the UK or 38,000 worldwide.

Paulina Wojtowicz, of The Court, Belgard Heights, Tallaght, who was described as one of McDonald’s best workers, claimed she was required to repeatedly squirt dressings on to burger after burger as part of a production assembly line at the company’s Kylemore Road outlet.

Ms Wojtowicz (31) described the task as excessive, demanding, intensive and unsafe. She said it culminated in an injury to the base of the little finger of her right hand in January 2019, when she suffered sudden and intense pain.

She was transferred to other duties on the day and spent weeks off work. She attended her GP and underwent surgery in Poland to remove a lump at the base of her right little finger.

Ms Wojtowicz said she left McDonald’s and later took up cleaning duties with another company but had to give it up after only two months. She claimed more than €8,000 in lost earnings as a result of her injury.

Consultant ergonomist Dr Celine McKeown told Judge Ní Culachain that using sauce dispensers may appear a seemingly simple activity but a person assigned to using them over an extended period could be left exposed to a foreseeable risk of injury.

Ms Wojtowicz told the court she had to dispense mustard, ketchup and sauce from special dispensers which she had to grip and squeeze.

Prof Leonard O’Sullivan, professor in industrial ergonomics at the University of Limerick, told the court repetitive strain injuries come on over a period of time and not instantaneously as Ms Wojtowicz had stated in her evidence.

He said the little finger contributes relatively little to hand grip effort and the dispensers in question were pressed by the thumb with the little finger involved in just holding the handles.

“I struggle to find a link between dispenser trigger force exertions and the activity of the little finger,” he said.

Dismissing the claim, Judge Ní Chulachain said Ms Wojtowicz had undoubtedly suffered an injury in January 2019 but it could not have been caused as described. A repetitive strain injury was not foreseeable to the defendant. She made no order for costs against Ms Wojtowicz.