A Greek court has ruled that the acid attack on a Bulgarian cleaning woman who had complained about working conditions was partly attributable to negligence by her company. The court ordered for Kuneva to receive 250,000 euros ($321,763) in damages.
Constantina Kuneva suffered serious injuries in the 2008 assault when acid was thrown in her face and the court said it was a work accident and she had to be paid, but until a final decree is made she can recover only 80,000 euros ($102,960).
The court blamed her employer, the Oikomet company, with not doing enough to protect her. The case is scheduled however to go before the Court of Appeal.
According to Kuneva’s lawyer, Stavrula Voltea, who has undertaken the civil part of the case, the court based its decision on the fact that the sulfuric acid attack took place just after she left work as a cleaner at an electric railway station.
She had insistently asked her employers to change her night shift to a morning one and to work at a station closer to her home. Kuneva, head of the Attica Union of Cleaners and Domestic Workers (PEKOP) at the time of the attack, has repeatedly received death threats by phone.
Nobody has been arrested for her attack that left her blind in one eye while she lost the use of her vocal chords.
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