Yesterday aworkcovervictimsdiary received an email from an injured worker, who kindly shared some insightful tips about workcover insurances and case managers legal obligations with regards to return to work (plans) and other useful general tips…
A useful workcover tip by an injured worker
I find it very interesting that most of the injured workers who are not being treated fairly and legally by these case managers should go back over all correspondence from the insurance company, risk management or human resources and the employer.
You will find that there will be a sentence or paragraph with relation to your return to work .
Does it contain the words “safe”, “assist or help “,”we will”.
When these words are written down these insurance companies and case managers have legal obligations including their own code of conduct policies to do what they have written down.
If the case manager discloses any correspondence or covert phone messages with the employer without your written consent ( you will become aware when the case manager sends you a letter changing the conditions)you have to write to the case manager plus the case manager’s supervisor plus the CEO of the Insurance company stating that they are in breach of the mutual obligatory conditions with your return to work .
I found that either you will have a new case manager allocated to you or you will receive a phone call from the insurance company.
Of course the employer will attempt to alter the boundaries of your return to work conditions . Expect this as it will occur. The injured worker must not get upset and it is very hard not too.
Keep every document/correspondence that you send or receive. You must do this including documenting phone call times etc .
[Name withed]
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Shortlink: http://aworkcovervictimsdiary.com/?p=8759
How do we get this information out to newly injured workers? I know of someone who was very seriously injured, who had complete faith in their employer & WC agent to do everything in their power to help the injured worker.
A couple of months after the injury & working reduced hours the injured worker’s condition was continuing to get worse & so did the attitudes of the employer & WC agent. Suddenly the injured worker was sacked & the WC agent was not returning calls, was always ‘away from her desk’ at a ‘conference’, ‘on leave’ or what ever other excuse they could think of to leave the injured worker in a hole of despair.
How I wish I was able to tell the injured worker, either before or on the day of their injury, that they needed to write everything down, copy every piece of paper & have everything confirmed in writing.
Very interesting points & I will go back over my own ‘return to work’ to see if there is anything at all that can help me, but I wish there was some way to get this information out to others when they need it most.
Hi itHurts – this is exactly why websites/blogs like these are so so much needed! And this is the very reason why I started this site – So we just need more and more people to know about this (and similar) sites. So help us spread the word – twitter, facebook, word by mouth, flyers (i.e. a GP offices) etc.