Lynn Gaston posted on November 01, 2010 06:00
BACK TALK
LOCATION: Maxfield Middle School
EVENT: In 2008, Bob Arthur pulled his back while playing a scrimmage game of basketball with his friends at a local gym. Bob, who was a maintenance technician and working in a Totem County middle school, never spoke of the incident while at work and kept working without constraints. Bob was hired in June 2009 by another school system to perform the same duties he had while working for Totem County Public Schools. In September, Bob told his supervisor he pulled a muscle in his back in June and that his back was hurting him now. Bob said that he was unable to perform his daily duties at the school. Bob told his supervisor that he pulled the muscle in June when he was dumping trash from a wheelbarrow off of a roof and into a dumpster below. Bob did not report the incident when it happened in June there were no witnesses who saw Bob actually get hurt. Bob was not eligible for disability retirement because he had only been working for the new county a short-period of time.
During the initial interview Bob had with the school’s claims officer, Bob acknowledged his previous basketball injury. The claims officer documented his conversation. Bob’s case was heard by the Insurance Commission after Bob had hired an attorney and filed a claim for permanent disability. The Commission surmised that the incident did not occur as Bob had stated and denied his claim. Bob did not appeal.
LESSON:
Bob’s case was denied since the accident did not occur as he had claimed and had given testimony regarding the pulled back muscle injury he sustained while playing basketball in 2008, which was the probable cause of his back pain.
Employees must notify their supervisors as soon as possible when they have an injury at work. The longer an employee waits to inform his supervisor, the less credible his report about the incident may be judged. Supervisors must interview the injured employee, or refer the employee to the person charged with documenting the incident as soon as possible. Any witnesses to the incident should be identified and interviewed about what they saw right away.
When the facts surrounding an injury are not recorded soon after the incident, the claim becomes hard to prove. Avoid claim disputes by documenting what happened and obtaining the statements of any witnesses.