Accident in work-manager couldn't care less

phoenix833

Hey,

Looking for advice on something that happened in work.

Firstly I was working in a department in work which I have absolutely no training in, I usually work in a different part of the store but I had to cover for somebody on holidays. Anyway I managed to cut two of my fingers really badly. Basically slashed the skin off down to the bone so I'll have a couple of nasty scars.

My grievence is with the manager. When he was told I cut myself he laughed and said "You didn't cut yourself with a knife so it's not even a mans cut"!!

Somebody who wasn't even qualified in Health and Safety bandaged me up and I went back to work, with the blood seeping out through the dressing. 3 hours later I was still bleeding so I went to the pharmacy and he advised me to go to A&E.

I went back to my manager and told him what the Pharmacist said and his reply was "Fine, go if you want".

Now I know some don't have good people skills but in the 4 hours between cutting myself and going to the hospital the only thing he said to me was "Get away from the Deli. Cross contamination." when I was standing outside the deli asking would somebody change my dressing again because the blood was running down my hand. Never asked was the cut bad, how was I, did I need to go to the hospital etc.


I wasn't particulary impressed with the way he handled the situation and I know for a fact he didn't write it in the H&S incident report book. And I shouldn't have been in that department anyway because I haven't adequate training. Is there anything I can do about that?

I got a cert for 5 days from A&E so as I was rostered to work and it was a work related accident what happens wit pay? The Assistant manager said to give them the bill for the hospital but he wasn't sure about pay.

Any ideas?

jimoc

For a work related accident the company has to pay you your wages for the missed days.

Beruthiel

phoenix833 wrote: »

I wasn't particulary impressed with the way he handled the situation and I know for a fact he didn't write it in the H&S incident report book.

HR/Safety Officer is supposed to fill all incident reports out for your employee file.
Insist that this is done and keep all records/receipts for your medical bills.

For all accidents in your place of work, employers are obliged to pay your wages while out sick and also your medical bills for the duration.

Long Term Louth

It appears that the employers are in breach of a number of health and safety regulations. However, employers are under no legal obligations to pay anyone while they are out of work in relation to a work related accident, some do, but others dont. If you were out of work for five days as a result of your accident, as your cert suggests, then the incident is required legally, to be reported to the Health and Safety authority and should be done so by your employer.

Mrs OBumble

Ok - so that's two contradictory posts.

Anyone got any links here? 'Fraid it's not an area I know much about ...

mm_surf

JustMary wrote: »

Ok - so that's two contradictory posts.

Anyone got any links here? 'Fraid it's not an area I know much about ...

Maybe I can clarify it a bit (EHS professional)

Employer is not obliged to pay for lost time, be it a work accident or not. Sucks, but that's how it is.

However,

They would be an idiot not to. Employee can claim the lost wages as part of a personal injury claim. Therefore, if an employer decides not to pay lost time, chances are that the employee takes the hump & sues. My advice to all employers is to pay medical costs & lost time until such time as a health professional says it's not a work accident. Otherwise, the employer will be paying it as part of a settlement.

Work accidents are notoriously difficult for an insurance company to defend in court - its extremely rare that one comes in front of a judge - hence anything that an employer can do to avoid a disgruntled employee suing is recommended, i.e. pay the costs & lost time.

So in your case, keep all your receipts, notes, and write down for your own beenfit what happened, and what happened afterwards, and treatment, etc. When & where you were treated, what presciptions you had, etc.

What happens now is up to you. From what you've said, its 50/50 whether they will pay your lost time & medical expenses. If they do, great - that's usually all most employees want.

If you decide to go down the road of a personal injury claim:
-You'll be on the sh1t list at work. I've never, ever seen anyone not have repercussions from a claim at work, in the 12 years I've been doing EHS.
-It'll take time. "perfect" case will be a minimum of 9 months through the PIAB (http://www.injuriesboard.ie/eng/). If it involves lawyers & gets settled "quickly" you're looking at about 2 years. If it gets contentious & actually into a court room, skys the limit (but probably about 2-4 years depending on all sorts of factors)
-You won't retire on the money. A claim for something like this won't be huge.
-You can kiss a reference goodbye from your current employer.
-If you're less than 12 months with your current employer, chances are you won't be there much longer.


Only you can decide what you're looking for out of this. But those are some of the potential sides of the coin.

M.

wmpdd3

Where I work, they do not pay if it is a work related accident, but the details are passed on to the company's legal dept and when the matter is completely settled, an offer may be made to the employee.

More often than not, the union advise proceeding to the PIAB. If the employee is not happy with the PIAB award they can proceed to a solicitor themselves at their own cost.

Basically, the employer doesn't pay as they see this as admitting liability.

Long Term Louth

I think people are jumping the gun with their responses, as little is known about the circumstances of the accident.

LegacyUser

Under H&S Legislation your employer is to provide training.
With regard to the injury recieved, if you are absent for more than 3 days the accident has to be reproted to the HSA (Health and Safety Authority)
If the company don't pay you for your days missed from work as a result of the accident you can calim injury benfit, you simply get a form signed by your doc stating your case and the employer signs this form stating the accident occured at work and then the welfare is paid out. The signing the form is not admitting liability.

phoenix833

Well I went back to work anyway as my employer told me they had no provisions for paying long term sick absentees. I had a medical cert for another 2 weeks but after he told me I wouldn't get paid I simply had to go back to work.

I got my wages on Thursday for last week(the week of the accident) and got paid for 2 1/2 days. Which is what I had worked up until the accident. A lot of other employees, including the assistant manager thought this was disgraceful and I should've got paid for the week at least.

I'm not sure what to do. The manager claimed he didn't know what hours were rang in for me for last week. Should I go back to him monday and let him know what I got paid or has he made it clear enough already?

xxlauraxxox

i had a familiar accident in work 2years ago where i caught my 2 fingers(got a hairpin break) in a metal doorframe in work coming out of the stockroom was just a stupid silly mistake and when i went to a+e they advised me to go back to my gp and get a social welfare form stamped from your gp and from your employer detailing what has happened and send it off to them. i asked the store manager/owner for a meeting while i was there getting the form stamped and we had a chat about what options we had due to pay and medical bills or a legal route. i didnt go down the legal route its a messy one with the employer. my advice to you would be call a meeting with the store manager or HR manager and discuss ur options in relation to pay and if you arent happy with the outcome of that try citzens advice or a lawyer

Best of luck and i wsh u a speedy recovery
laura x

Mrs OBumble

OP, if you have a medical cert, there is no way they should be letting you work.

Go and see Citizens Information, and find out what your right are re sickness benefit etc (I have no idea, myself, but there must be something)

aN.Droid

phoenix833 wrote: »

Well I went back to work anyway as my employer told me they had no provisions for paying long term sick absentees. I had a medical cert for another 2 weeks but after he told me I wouldn't get paid I simply had to go back to work.

I got my wages on Thursday for last week(the week of the accident) and got paid for 2 1/2 days. Which is what I had worked up until the accident. A lot of other employees, including the assistant manager thought this was disgraceful and I should've got paid for the week at least.

I'm not sure what to do. The manager claimed he didn't know what hours were rang in for me for last week. Should I go back to him monday and let him know what I got paid or has he made it clear enough already?

OP, lodge a claim with the Injuries Board you have a genuine case here. What your employer doing is all wrong, first off they didn't care of your condition even though it was a work related accident, secondly they did not even try to sort out any payment with you for the lost work days and thirdly they got you to work during your cert time, which they are not allowed to do as you would not be insured to be on there premises working during those days, if you were to have another accident they would have to pay out of there pocket and depending on how bad it was it could close them down - as you can see it's not a good idea for them to have you work.

Short of it all is, they didn't care for you so why should you care for them?

The piab stage can all be done by yourself without a solicitor, if you have a union I recommend talking to them about it first. If you decide to get a solicitor to help you out you will not get the costs back from the piab stage which could be up to 3000 euro's or more depending on the solicitor.