A NSW call-centre employee who failed to establish a link between workplace “abuse, bullying, humiliation and insults” and his debilitating psychiatric condition was refused workers’ compensation. In July 2008 the employee suffered a panic attack on a train while travelling home from work. He had a second attack two days later and has not returned to work since. He was subsequently diagnosed with a panic disorder and agoraphobia, and claimed compensation, which was denied to him!
Injured worker denied compo as unable to establish causation of mental harm
onditions.The employer refused liability. An arbitrator upheld its decision.
Onus on worker to prove causal nexus
We believe that it is outrageous that this injured person was denied workers compensation. Although we do not know all the facts and circumstances of the case and the claim, (and we’re no lawyers!) it appears to us that this man was deliberately denied workers compensation, based on one of the many tactics used by workcover insurers,which consists of inappropriately scrutinising the personal medical file of the claimant and holding anything possible (yes, even the smallest “issue”) against the claimant. In this case, they came up with “traumatic upbringing” and what-not! How convenient!
If any of you has been through a medical panel of psychiatrists for a psychiatric impairment assessment, you will surely have noticed to what length they will interview you, in the hope to find “anything else” that has caused your primary or secondary work injury related psychiatric injuries.
It is a shame that “none of the medical practitioners had documented the relationship between work and the injuries”… Again this demonstrated the uttermost importance of ensuring that you (the injured) clearly vocalise your symptoms AND relate them to their cause (e.g I had my full blown first panic attack as I left the office, however it had started in the office, during such and such… and I started having heart palpitations etc, etc”.
After too many years in the ‘workcover business’ we have certainly realised (and experienced) that many doctors and even specialists will omit critical ‘stuff’ in their written correspondence.
A workcover victim recently obtained a copy of a surgical report, and whilst he had suffered life threatening complications during surgery, for which the guy ended up on life support, the surgeon had OMITTED to even mention this in the surgical report, of which a copy went directly to the insurance company. Yeah right eh…. You can see from here how much grief this caused to the injured worker to have his intensive case hospital stay and associated accounts paid by the insurer!
Workcover victim told me also about another important and perhaps similar issue. He told me that, over the years, his work related injury has been reported by various medical practitioners, including the medical panel, as having occurred as a result of horse riding, then rock climbing, then it was a fall in the shower, then an assault. In the “assault part” he was punched once, then several times, then so hard he fell to the ground etc etc.
We can not stress the importance of:
- documenting your injuries as they occur, have them examined as they occur, photograph them (and the place where it/they occurred)
- reviewing all you medical reports (obtain copies via the FOI) and scrutinise the reports/correspondence for any mistakes, false allegations, mistakes etc and have them corrected ASAP
- should you experience bullying, harassment, abuse etc., keep a personal “diary” of each and every event, ensure you keep all “evidence” (such as emails, txt messages etc).
Your suggestions are utterly insufficient. The trauma of even keeping a diary, the pain, the stress, it shouldn’t have to be endured, or documented. The process one is required to go through to pretect themselves against agressive litigators with bad intent is it’self what causes people to kill themselves. And I think that’s the intent. These fuckers are trying to kill us off. One by one. Until there is nothing BUT profit.
I should be able to expect reasoanble treatment as a citizen of a country, not have my life whittleed away for 13.5 fucking eyars while they argue dot points of fucking law if I deserve to be homeless or not as a result of some incompetent, negligent bitch who shouldn’t have a fucking license with her blaze attitude towards road safety.
Either have insurance, and pay, or stop fucking indemifying people — I should be able to sue her for my losses, or expect to be compensated by insurance. Not her indemnified, and a fucking army of lawyers dumped between me and my rightful compensation.
Not that it’s even remotely worth shit anymore — our rights have been whittleed away in the law, the maximums aren’t enough for someone who’s worked most of their life and has super, and a house, let alone someone just starting out their life. It’ guarantees them they never have a life, lifestyle, people to care about, kids, house…. it’ puts them below the poverty line, and keep sthem there unless somehow they can find a way to work, despite the pain.
It’s just fucking abusive. Stop it. Stop it now. Please, please, can I swap ou tthese fucking cunts for regular, everday boring workplace bullies. There’s just no escape. NO freedom. No option. No choices. And nothng left. There’s even no point in fucking complaining. Nothing changes. People don’t care. People just go right back to ignoring you. Don’t complain. Pretend to be fine. Be fine, keep up, or you’ll get ignored anyway.
Nobody cares.
Ben.
Oww, you sound like you’re having a real bad day, Ben!
Mind you everything you say here is correct and I am sure all injured workcover and TAC victims would agree.
However, as far as our “insufficient” suggestions concern, it is a fact though, that given our f*cled up system, one (injured people) need to document their injuries and causation, in particular all psychological/psychiatric injuries are extremely important here! We are being treated like fraudsters and liers, malingerers and thieves. As you can see from this legal case, we have to be able to show a clear link between harm and causation. This unfortunately requires meticulous documentation and preservation of the “evidence” by the injured worker. It is a lesson many of us have learned. If you don’t have ‘evidence’, it did not happen in their eyes. And that is why we really urge all injured victims to keep meticulous documentation of injuries (use of diary, preserving all emails, notes, keep (potential) witnesses names and contact details at hand, photograph, use video, anything and all becomes “evidence”. if you just “tell” your story, chances are that nobody will believe you (workcover, case managers, justice system). Bullying, harassment etc are quite difficult to “prove” as such, you see what we’re meaning: document everything.
And you’ re right,Ben, it shouldn’t be like that. The bottom line is that we just should not be treated like f*cking criminals in the first place.
On a more personal level, I have been fortunate to have kept every single piece of “evidence” since my injury occurred. Some are just goldmines (such as diary entries and pictures of being illegally confined in a small place for 2 years at work, evidence that work did not implement ergonomic aids since 06, evidence that I was forced to purchase my own computer for work and stuff like that….) It all adds up in the end, when the time come for opening THE can of worms, as there is ample evidence of a pattern of abuse.
I also agree that it can be extremely traumatic to diarise traumatic events, especially those that caused you mental harm. From my own experience I find that it is ‘easier” to document such things immediately, whilst you are still angry. Once you get overwhelmed by grief, rage, depression, trauma and stress, the mere fact of recalling such a traumatic incidences can become in turn traumatic and aggravate PTSD and or other emotions.
On more than 1 occasion, I have actually asked “witnesses” to document what has happened (as I was too traumatised to do it myself). When I felt “better” (medicated) i was then able to fill in the gaps and add to the documentation.
But that’s just my 2C worth of “advice”.
We certainly advise all injured workers (especially Newbies) to please document and re-document EVERYTHING.
You and anyone else are more than welcome to add to our suggestions! We’re not proclaiming to know it all, we write from our own experiences in the hope to better inform injured people on how to ‘defend’ themselves against such potential devastating law suits where they end up getting nothing for a severe mental injury… if only there had been ‘evidence”….
@Ben:I hope you have read the most valuable commentary from Atlas_LegalAU re bullying & harassment and how to document and preserve “evidence”. It appears that our suggestions were certainly accurate.
http://aworkcovervictimsdiary.com/2012/02/have-you-been-bullied-or-harassed-by-sussan-corportion/#comment-2672
Give up, go on the disability pension. Live life within those means.
Or somehow convince people to get politically active.
Everything else is pointless. Legal cases, documentation, you name it. It’s a total and utter joke. You win with all your effort, and it’s barely cents in the dollar *for your time* let alone for your losses. And if you were capable of documenting and arguing it sufficiently to win, then you’d almost certainly have been better off on disability and “working” as much as your remaining capacity would allow.
There is no compensation, it’s a giant lie to suck you in to take your premiums off you. Treat the 3% odd workcover premiums we pay on our payrolls as what it is — blatant out and out tax, there is no coverage in exchange for your money, it’s a state-supported scam. Outright fraud.
And “the people” of Victoria, my own family included, don’t care enough to make political waves, and vote against it.
So it’s the way it is.
Injury kills the body, the way insurance is, that kills the soul.
Ben.
The disability pension isn’t going to cover all the necessary medical treatment that workers compensation does.
Plus, ongoign medical checks would be required for that too, just as in the workers comp system.
I could not agree more – it’s the worst comment/”advise” I have ever read – wonder what this person is doing to himself AND other injured workers. Get a grip, Mate!
Don’t give up, never give up. Injured workcover and TAC victims are renowned for being super resilient, you have to in order to cop the daily abuse from workcover/TAC, from your case manager, from the rotten system, cop the pain, the diability/incapacity, the depression, the rage, the anger, the frustration etc.
I believe we – injured workers- are some of the toughest cookies around, so hang on,don’t give up, never give up
“Tomorrow will be better.”
“But what if it’s not?” I asked.
“Then you say it again tomorrow. Because it might be. You never know, right? At some point, tomorrow will be better.”
Perpetual hope merely perpetuates needless suffering. Sometimes you lose.
Ben.
Call LIFELINE 13 11 14 NOW if you haven’t already.
http://www.lifeline.org.au/
Good idea, if you feel suicidal call a professional.. friends, family (people on this board) even, are not equipped to deal with such things. If you feel like giving up.. call someone…
I would certainly hope that injured people who are feeling hopeless are seeking professional help in the form of Lifeline, Clinical Psychologist, Psychiatrist, GP etc.
Whilst this blog does offer support to injured workers to a degree, it’s readers and contributors are themselves injured, fragile and vulnerable, and definitely not in a position to “counsel” anyone.
To me this site’s “mission” appears to be more to educate injured workers (rights, tips, tricks, navigating the system), raise awareness (public & media) and to offer a place where injured workers can come together to feel a sense of belonging, where they can vent, where they can find strength, courage, a laugh and some answers and supportive help with their difficult workcover journeys/claims.
I personally do not feel it appropriate to publicly instill a sense of desperate hopelessness and extreme negativity here, and/r to personally attack or heavily and negatively criticise post Authors, no matter how you feel. We all (injured workers) know that the system is pretty hopeless, that’s why we’re here! I personally would prefer to see you positively contribute to articles and comments, and that includes venting – but constructively, like all other commentators.
If you feel the need to write about your feelings, by all means do it on the forum – a special board has been set up there for injured people who would like to keep an “online diary” – your own space. And this can be very “therapeutic” by the way! People can follow you there and comment if they wish to do so. I am saying all of this in a positive way, please do not get offended.
I believe this is the reason why such complex and negative comments usually go unanswered here.
This is just my opinion. Any thoughts?
I couldn’t agree with you more WC3. Well said.