My husband has worked for a LARGE corp. that everyone goes to for home improvment items for almost 1 year. He was always ontime and only had 1 sick day. Well while at work he got a rusty nail in his foot, his boss said he shouldnt claim it under the company because everyone will suffer. So we went the hospital and said it happened at home and ran it through our ins. he was out of work for 3 days(the nail went through to the bone) then he went back to work and 5 days later he had an accident at a friends house and his leg was crushed (the muscle) but not broken, it is in a temp cast and he can put no pressure on it. Yester we saw the dr. and they said light duty and off his feet at wk for 2 weeks, when we brought the paper in the boss said ok are you coming in tomorrow? He said yes. So today he went in at 7a and his boss said ok just ride the cart around, they have had workers who were injured do it before, well an hour later they called him in the office and said they had to let him go. te reson was because he was later clocking in one day.
What should we do now? I know they payout over $100,000 a month for injuries to customers. Should we go after them?
THanks for any sugestions.
Answers~ Yes others saw it and no bandaid, there was a lot of blood and other emploee's helped clean it up and they documented it that it happend at work. So there is plenty of proof that it happened at work. His boss said that if he made the Co. pay for medical bills it would effect all their bonuses and if they started laying off people it wouldnt look good that he made them pay. I have a paper from the co. saying the injury happened there. The Co. doesnt have a problem paying out to customers, you can get hit by paper towels and they will pay you making sure you dont sue them. Just not sure what to do.
He didnt clock in late, they said he did ON THE DATE of the nail injury.
Thanks for all the input. ANSWER: He had running shoes on and the blood came out after he pulled the nail out and took his shoe off.
Jessica, Not clocking in on time and the date was the date of the nail injury and that was the reason they wrote on the paper. So your saying if your husband got hurt at work and his boss implied if you claim on workman comp it will affect everyone else and they are looking to cut hours and let people go so this is something they will look at when laying off that you husband would think wow I can say this happend on my own and have my ins. pay or make a claiim and loose my job? Let me make it VERY clear I AM NOT LOOKING TO SUE, i have never sued anyone but I am looking for sugestions on what do you moms think they are responsible for? The company doesnt care about you as a person they just care about the sales..
Go see a lawyer and nail the company's butt to the wall. Corporations are such dirty players. They suck up all the money for the execs and pay the workers next to nothing. Ram them they deserve it.
GO after them as in sue the company? GEES ...... so many people in this country are SO sue happy and looking for a payout. People think... oh it is corporation and they deserve to be screwed. GEES..... I can't understand some of the mentality I witness sometimes....
Your husband LIED to the hospital, therefore HE committed fraud with HIS insurance company. YOUR HUSBAND is guilty of fraud and it will probably come back and bite you in the behind.
Bottom line, you want a part of the $100,000 they pay out monthly.
If your family is lucky.... your insurance company will not drop you and leave you uninsured due to LYING. People who LIE and commit insurance fraud are the ones who make ALL of our premiums go up and pay. I resent using my money to pay for people who trick and lie in the system.
Consult a lawyer.
Unfortunately, he lied. That looks bad, and the company would jump all over that...and probably deny they told him to do so. He is the one who lied, so obviously he can't be believed. (According to their lawyers, I'm not saying that's the truth.) That's probably how it will go, but you never know. Only a lawyer can really make the situation clear for you. I'm pretty sure what your husband did can be considered fraud. That might be a door you don't want to open...
I REALLY hate to say this... but since you reported the injury as having occurred at home, I think you are fairly well screwed. If you come out now and say it happened at work, you will be opening yourself up to an insurance fraud investigation... At this point, since there is no documentation of his injury being work-related, it's his word vs. their word... and his word is already questionable because he lied to the hospital...
Talk to a lawyer... you may be able to go after the company for pressuring him not to make a legitimate workman's comp claim... Does he have any witnesses to his work injury that will back him up? Does the company have a history of pressuring employees not to make injury claims? These things may help...
I would consult with a lawyer that specializes in labor issues.
i don't know if you can go back and change it...Lowe's and Home Depot have great lawyers....so they can make it like your husband lied...this is a totally crappy situation...
If it had been me? I personally would've told my boss to pound sand and claim it as I won't LIE FOR THEM...
Not sure if you have a case...guess you could contact a lawyer and see - however, keep in mind - your husband stated to the hospital it happened at home...so then their lawyers will cease that opportunity and make you look bad...are you ready for that? Doesn't matter that what is going on is wrong - it's their lawyers job to make you look bad....
The only person who could tell you if you have a case is an employment lawyer. Laws do vary by state, also. What would you go after them for? Unlawful termination? These cases are extremely hard to win. Large corporations have huge teams of lawyers just to fight these types of cases.
Companies can terminate employees for no reason with no notice in most states in the US. They let him go for being late one day. They can do that. Terminating him while he is injured? They can do that, too.
We've given all our rights as workers away in this country. No other industrialized country in the world has as few protections for workers as we have here in the US.
b.
What a crappy situation! Well, I definitely wouldn't have lied about where the injury happened, but it does sound like they pressured him into it. I would definitely talk to a labor lawyer about this.
Wow... that's low what they did to him! I would be tempted to go after it, but I don't really know. Typically I'm not into that (suing people and such), but he has every right to have them take responsibility for his original injury. I'm not sure how it all works since he didn't report it as a work injury originally.
I guess I don't know. I think it's something you should put a lot of thought into and see what your gut says to do.
ADDED: I would DEFINITELY make sure they are responsible for the injury, the part I'm unsure of is whether you should go for more money or not. But for sure, make sure they pay for the injury...assuming you can get them to do that now.
I think you should hire an attorney who handles these types of cases and have a consult. Determine what his legal rights are and what the corporations rights and responsibilities are and then make a decision on whether to pursue legal action. You have several issues here - employment law (the firing) and worker's compensation law (the injury). And this has all gotten muddied by the accident at his friend's house. Those are totally different than liability law of an injured customer, so don't confuse the issues. Good luck!
Not only would I sue for the accident at work, but I'm sure you may have another case in where they asked him to LIE about where or how he was injured. Call around for lawyers and see if those are around that will only charge if you win a settlement... and call around to see how much they'd take percentage wise if you won.
I would contact OSHA (http://www.osha.gov/workers.html) about it. They may be able to direct you to what is appropriate.
Frankly, I do think that you might have a case for wrongful termination, and in cases like this, I do think that you should seek legal advice, because it does sound like he was fired to make him and his problems "go away."
I do not believe in suing at the drop of a hat or for reasons that are selfish. Looking into this matter is not selfish, imo, but is a way of protecting your family.
my question is why didnt they write him up when he came in late? dont they have to write you up a couple times before firing/letting you go. read up on their system of firing/letting people go. if anything go to another place like this and just work for them...i wouldnt want o work here anymore anyways.
What your husband did was just as bad as what the company did as far as the w/c accident. He committed insurance fraud. Why is hubby so worried about the companies insurance costs, but not his own health insurance costs?
You need to talk to an attorney. Your husband was wrongfully terminated. Based on what you said, he has a solid case against the co. In addition, he should file for unemployment benefits.
yes, I would call an attorney and talk to them and then if the attorney advises I would sit down with the manager of the corp and tell them that you have documented and told an attorney about the "everyone will suffer".. Honestly, I would have never sent it through our own insurance without saying it happened at work. You may have to go above that manager's head before going to an attorney and see if that works. call corporate and tell them the situation and ask them how they plan to remedy the situation BEFORE you get an attorney.
are there any witnesses at work other than the mgr that it happened at work? I would almost assume that there was another employee that saw it, whether on duty and walked passed him, or in the office when he was getting a bandaid, etc Or, even better, get proof that he worked that specific date and then the hospital visit on that specific date.
wow. what a crappy situation! so sorry. i would never have lied and said the initial injury happened at home :( but to answer your question, yes I would go back and tell the truth about the injury and see what happens.
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wow. what a crappy situation! so sorry. i would never have lied and said the initial injury happened at home :( but to answer your question, yes I would go back and tell the truth about the injury and see what happens.
When did he clock in late? was it before the nail injury or after? Why did he clock in late?
I used to handle WC in AZ. You have two issues here, the WC injury and the possible wrongful termination.
Regarding the WC injury - you have one year to file it with the WC insurance, I suggest you do that asap. Really there is very little cost to the insurance company for that type of injury since he didn't end up with blood poisoning, if you had reported it right away it would have been open and shut. However, your husband lied about it, was fired, and now wants to report the injury. Huge red flags for a claims adjuster, so what would have been open and shut will probably not be now - it may be denied due to your husband's lie and and subsequent firing, his credibility just doesn't look that good at this point.
2nd issue is the wrongful termination. If you feel he was wrongfully terminated due to the second injury get an attorney. I seriously doubt they fired your husband over the nail in foot injury, it really wouldn't cost them that much through WC and wouldn't have affected their overall rating which is what their WC premiums are based on. Now they might have fired him because he couldn't work with a crushed foot and that might be discrimination - again you would need an attorney. Most attorneys I dealt with that handle WC don't handle wrongful termination, so if you decide to litigate both you might need two.
ETA - regarding the accident at work - you are only entitled to be paid for time off work and medical care. Only if there is a permanent injury would you receive any other type of settlement, since it doesn't sound like there is any permanent injury there would be no settlement, so nothing for an attorney to take as contingency; might be hard to even get an attorney for that.
