had an accident at work. what do i do?

RoyalMarine

had an accident at work.
hit my head on scaffolding that was requested to be removed 3 weeks prior to my accident.
the scaffo was blocking the main entrance to the room, so i had to duck to get under it.
only i had a full bale of 25mm conduit on my shoulder ( 3.75m long )
i stood up too early and hit my head on the scaffo bar protruding. had a hard hat on, but still knocked me over. had a sore neck after, so i reported it to the foreman.

we filled in an accident report sheet, and i went for my lunch. it got stiff and sore, so i told him. he said go to the doctor's.

so i went to the doc's.
she told me i need an xray.
went to the vhi healthcentre in dundrum.
got 3 xray's done.
they said no fractures or visable damage.
sent me home with 3 medicines. ( difine, tylex and valium )
went to my gp 2 days later.
he examined me and said its swollen, and inflamed.
gave me a soft brace neck collar.

anyway, went back and forth to the doctor's since then.
they sent me back for more xray's and they showed no probs.

my neck is feeling a lot better now.
work rang me yesterday and asked me to go see a doctor in waterford. ( same doctor that does all their pre work exams )
he jotted down what happened, and told me to get physio done.
going back to my gp in an hour or so, and hopefully he will give me a back to work cert for monday so i can get back on with my apprenticeship.

anyway's, since monday the 30th of janurary, ive been outa work.

so far its cost me 560 euro for all medical bills.
+ another 45 for today's visit to my gp.

so thats 605 euro in total.

---

ive filled out a social welfare out of work form for all the weeks ive been out, so hopefully i can claim that.

also, ive filled out an sp1 form for the construction federation sick pay scheme which i pay weekly.
which i believe i am entitled to claim regardless of wether i claim social benefit.

is this right?

also, my company appear to be paying me my full wages each week, but i cant confirm this untill i return to work on monday and get my pay slips and check.

the only problem i have is can they take that money back? or will the social welfare tell me im not entitled to claim from them since im being paid from work?

also, what do i do about my medical bills?

ive told my company i work for that i dont want to claim for the accident as im only with the company 4 months, and i dont want to cause any fuss with them.

as long as i get what im entitled to, and my medical bills are covered then i dont mind and i wont have to claim for anything.

i think my company dont want me to claim because they already had 2 reportable accidents on site, and this is the 3rd. and from what i know, they will loose their safety bonus if i make a claim.
i have reciepts for all the medical costs including xrays, gp visits and prescribed medinces.

any ideas on what i should do, or if im wrong on what im entitled to? have i done something in the wrong order or is their a better soloution to this?
any comments are welcome!

thanks in advance.

WhiteWashMan

what you should do is up to you.

if you need to know what your options are, you need to talk to a solicitor, and you need to talk to your company.

you also need to check your contract to see what it says about injuries onthe job. your HR department should have a proceedure as to what needs to be done, and there should be no issues with them letting you see it.

it may give you some idea of what you need or want to do.
if the company dont want you to make a claim, then you should be able to reach an agreement. they may ask you to sign a waiver against future claims for this incident, however, whatever you do get everything in writing.

yo uhave kept all receipts and notes on what has happened, and your little adventures around the land, and thats excellet.

first thing to do however for me would be to find out what the proceedure for injuries are. you may have it in your contract, so check it out.

otherwise, legal advice is probably what you need.

RoyalMarine

WhiteWashMan wrote:

what you should do is up to you.

if you need to know what your options are, you need to talk to a solicitor, and you need to talk to your company.

you also need to check your contract to see what it says about injuries onthe job. your HR department should have a proceedure as to what needs to be done, and there should be no issues with them letting you see it.

it may give you some idea of what you need or want to do.
if the company dont want you to make a claim, then you should be able to reach an agreement. they may ask you to sign a waiver against future claims for this incident, however, whatever you do get everything in writing.

yo uhave kept all receipts and notes on what has happened, and your little adventures around the land, and thats excellet.

first thing to do however for me would be to find out what the proceedure for injuries are. you may have it in your contract, so check it out.

otherwise, legal advice is probably what you need.

read my contract and it does have a few pages on accidents at work. ! pretty handy! thanks man!

im going to talk to my parents and get some legal advice on it.
also, tomorrow i have an appointment with the health and safety manager of the company. im going to prepare a list of questions to ask him.

and this part was funny..
lol laughed a bit.

WhiteWashMan wrote:

you have kept all receipts and notes on what has happened, and your little adventures around the land, and thats excellet.

WhiteWashMan

glad i helped.
am not too sure at being amusing however...