Talking about bullying, harassment and intimidation, about two -three years ago, Lisa, a severely injured worker, was bullied and intimidated to such an extent- by her longstanding employer- that she was even forced to purchase her own laptop for work when her previously privately purchased laptop crashed at work and was deemed irreparable.
Employer abuses injured worker – a real story
Lisa, a severely injured worker, had been forced by her Xchanging case manager [and by her employer] to continue work with a terrible dominant shoulder and arm injury, even though specialist medical certificates clearly stated that she was NOT allowed to continue work unless the medically requested ergonomic support was put in place. Needless to say that the requested ergonomics were never put in place, and Lisa was bullied and intimidated to continue full time work in the same duties which caused severe exacerbation of her injury. In fact, Lisa had to undergo yearly (or twice a year) major surgical reconstructions to her shoulder/arm and still was never offered the required ergonomic level of support in the workplace. Lisa was so much intimidated by her case manager (and her employer) that she truly felt she had no option but to continue work in debilitating pain and with a mangled arm. In fact, she was often working with a visibly dislocated shoulder and in tears.
Without going into to much details, Lisa wishes to share one example of such sheer bullying and intimidation.
Because of Lisa’s severe right shoulder/arm injury, she was unable to use a normal desktop computer at work (for her work) as she required to use dictation software (which required a huge amount of computer memory and processing capability) and needed to be able to position the computer at waist level as she was unable (and not allowed) to use her dominant arm/hand away from waist level (the elbow had to remain in contact with her waist at all times).
Her employer had relocated Lisa into a real (we kid you not) broom closet, which was barely 3m x 2 m and without ventilation. They had done so to “allow” Lisa the ability to use dictation (requires a single quiet office).
For some obscure reason, Lisa was never offered or provided with a wireless laptop, as medically requested and had no option but to bring in her private laptop in order to do her work.
Lisa was so intimidated by her workcover case manager (who told her repeatedly that she would be cut off workcover if she did not stay at work), and by her employer that she felt she was obliged to purchase a new laptop privately (and the accessories incl. voice recognition software) as to continue full time work….
Eventually Lisa spoke out and told a newly appointed and lovely return to work coordinator (who lasted 4 months!) that she could not understand why she had to buy her own work tools and that she believed she was being abused and discriminated against for no other reason but for being severely disabled.
The new return to work coordinator took it upon her to write a letter to executive management (incl. OH&S Director and HR) and insist that Lisa be refunded for the new laptop she purchased.
Here is the letter:
In the end, Lisa was eventually reimbursed for her laptop, sleeve and software. However, she never ever received the medically requested ergonomic support and was forced to continue work in agony until her shoulder/arm broke to such an extent that it was deemed irreparable. Then her employer simply sacked her… like a commodity.
As John blogged, injured workers are most often bullied into silence. It even happened to Lisa (aka workcovervictim)!
Looking back, Lisa regrets that she has allowed her case manager and employer to intimidate and bully her into silence and that she felt so scared that she continued to work full time in-spite of medical certificates forbidding her to do so.
Lisa has now permanently lost all function in her dominant arm and has no prospects of ever regaining some sort of “normal” life. She is permanently, severely disabled because she was too scared to speak out. Don’t let this ever ever happen to you, she says. Your health is your priority, no matter what.
Shortlink: http://aworkcovervictimsdiary.com/?p=8461
If there was one recurring theme that stands out with nearly all (if not all) injured workers I’ve spoken to is this: They’ve been bullied consistently by either their employers or insurers (often both). In fact, it is clear in the survey conducted by IWSN. Refer IWSN factual submission to the parliamentary inquiry workcover compensation NSW scheme
Maybe anti-bullying laws need to applied the the Workers Compensation Act – for now, they simply don’t apply. It’s bad enough that the problem is rampant in many organisations, but it even harder to contend with when you’re injured or ill (yet employers and especially insurers routinely engage in the practice).
xchanging please make arrangements for this so called case manager to be on a corner in close proximity to your offices he will be the first low life to taste the KARMA bus and tell the scum bag to stick his or her head between the legs and kiss the arsehole goodbye.
We believe the karma bus has already made a pick up- we received a wonderful email from an injured worker who happens to have worked in the same hospital and confirmed that the “allocated” case manager (from hell) had recently been removed from dealing with all the workplace’s injured workers This case manager has already been named a few times on our blog and we can’t help but wonder whether aworkcovervictimsdiary has “helped’ remove this evil case manager…
United we stand!
hi just finished reading yr story, bn a long road for u. So horrible how employers start treating the staff different after yr injured.Workercover is so scary when u first get injured.
so u were back to same duties and hours after u were injuries? What did yr Dr say?That’s crazy.
some of yr injuries are similar to mine. Hope yr taking it easy these day. Yr site is awesome by the way.:-)