Injury At Work

Status
Not open for further replies.

rebirth5450

New Member
Hello,

You have all given me good information in the past but I only have bad news tonight I guess and I hope you can give me some good advice.

Ok so this is how it went down.

I was a Manager at a WalMart store of which I quit a week later after this incident.

I managed the front end or the registers and the cashiers involved in those positions.

An associate came up to me one day explaining of pain in their arm and that this person did not know what to do about it. Because of constant injuries at our store, I tried to be pro-active. I called an Assistant Manager and said what should we do, they said go to the pharmacy, Store Use a brace, and then put them as a door greeter for the rest of the night. I did all these things and complied.

The Assistant Managers are on a rotation which means they work 3 days, then have 3 days off. So the next day it was a new rotation for Assistant Managers. I was called to a register, a belt, not an express, and the associate said to me verbatim "Patrick, I can't do this I need to be moved to an express" where of course there are fewer items and less heavy one's most likely.

I said hold on, but turned the associates light off, signaling the register lane was now closed. I called an Assistant Manager and told them I was sending an associate back to see them.

I run about 70 associates at any given time, or I did before I quit, which they are calling a termination. 15 minutes later I noticed that same associate was back on a belt register, with no notification from my management if they were ok to work and not get injured.

So I called my manager and said what is going on, why is this person on a register and this manager told me that "they said they were fine and ok to work". I was thinking this is a complete lie.

The very next day the associate got injured, and within a week I decided to quit.

I personally feel guilty beyond words because I did not stick up to my upper management and I need to know is there any recourse for this associate? They were on a door the day before with a brace, and yet even with the brace the next day we worked together they felt pain, management tells me they are ok to work, and the next day they are injured.

I don't want revenge, and I'm sorry if this sounds like a sob story. But I feel really guilty and I don't know what to do aside from calling an "ambulance chaser" type attorney, and having them deal with it. I don't mind the idea of prison or if I need to pay restitution which WalMart Corp. will most likely do. But I feel the wrong decision was made by senior manager and I want to know if this is something that should be pursued, or just work out the guilt and find a new job as it could only hurt my own career.

I just feel justice should be done, and if it's against me or that company, than AMEN or make it so.

I have never in my life been put in a situation like this before and it's all about the all-mighty dollar. It just disgusts me. Please give me your best advice.

Thank you for your time and knowledge on this subject,

Rebirth5450
 
The associate can and should file a workers comp claim. But in the absence of a doctor's note or some other medical verification that he was unable to perform his duties, it was the right of the store to place him where they needed/wanted him.

BTW, any time you leave a position for any reason, it's a termination. There are both voluntary and involuntary terminations.
 
cbg

Are you suggesting though that any employer while knowing an employee is injured can put them in harms way or the possibility of them being injured further?

While understanding corporate motivations, isn't that a bit inhumane? We're aware of your injury and instead of putting you in a different position until you heal we put you in the same one until you are injured further?

To me that sounds like a lawsuit for unsafe business practices because the associate knew and advised their management that something was hurting them.

I do understand that they can be put in the position they are meant to work I'm just saying, if they are injured why would a company even risk it?

This associate has to file no workers compensation claim, WalMart automatically pays for all work related injuries.

My complaint and feelings of being upset are solely derived upon the fact that this could have been prevented since we knew the associate was somewhat injured to begin with.
 
I'm saying that anyone can put on a brace and claim to be injured.

I destest Wal-Mart. Nothing would give me more pleasure than to tell you you've got a million dollar lawsuit in your future. But that's not the case IMO.

No one KNEW that the associate was injured. They KNEW that the associate CLAIMED to be having pain. But the associate did not bring in any medical verification that they were unable to work a register. For all anyone KNEW (and I am NOT saying that this is the case - I'm telling you how this pans out legally IMO), the employee was making it all up to get out of duties he didn't want to do. There's nothing in your story to show that he even WENT to the doctor.

There's an HR maxim; if it isn't documented, it didn't happen.

Please do not take this as blaming the victim. It is not intended that way. I'm not saying what happened was the associates fault, and of course I'm sorry he was injured. I'm not unsympathetic. But you don't have a lawsuit or any kind of legal claim on the basis of an injury that may or may not be related to an previous, undocumented injury for which there was no medical verification. If he was unable to work a register, then he should have gone to the doctor and gotten a note. The employer is not required to take the employee's word for the fact that they are unable to perform certain duties.


Stand by for Certain Other Posters to come by and slam me for this.
 
The worker is responsible for his own injury. He knew he was hurt and voluntarily continued to work. He can collect workers comp, that is what it is there for.
You don't have any responsibility. You took him off the register. He came back and continued to work all on his own.

As said above, without the worker coming in with some sort of doctor's verification of an injury, there was no reason not to expect the worker from performing his usual duties.

There is absolutely no lawsuit to be considered over it... I'm not sure what your angle is on that.

I'm also not clear why you decided to quit over this... it is a very common and minor incident.
 
rebirth - I think you need to look at this a bit differently. You did your part. And when management acted badly, you quit. (You walked away from a bad situation, which was the right move) You might feel responsible, but in reality you are not (you did all you can do) and in the end it's not your battle to fight. The battle belongs to that employee, if he/she decides to fight it. The only thing you can really do is testify on that employee's behalf if they decide to escalate it to a lawsuit.

It sounds like that employee needs to find another job, but that is likely not an option right now.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top