Tennis Elbow and Workers Compensation
“Imagine getting hurt at work and the personnel manager telling you workers compensation is not an option. I worked in a Distribution Center and had just received my 10 year pin. My elbows had been bothering me for a couple months but not understanding what was happening, I tried to work it out myself. I was doing the work for 2 shifts. It was obvious to me that the other shift was using their person in my position to do other things, as they were short handed and not hiring the adequate amount of people to do the job.(I guess it’s true the managers bonuses depended on what monies that could be saved for their departments). I spoke with my ops-manager several times about getting the other shifts to help out, he said he’d email them and talk to the manager. This happened several times before I realized I wasn’t getting better and there was no talking to the ops-manager; he’d just brush me off again. When I finally reported my injury, it took my manager 8 days to get me to a doctor. I was diagnosed with bi-lateral epicondilitis (Tennis elbow and golfers elbow) and was sent back to work with restrictions. The doctor told me to refrain from repetitive movement.
“For the next month, I struggled with what they gave me to do. They continued to give me repetitive work (they obviously didn’t care). If I couldn’t do it they offered to send me home without pay. To make up for lost hours, I had to use my personal and vacation time (boy didn’t they know what they were doing)!!! Finally, the personnel manager brought me into her office, in front of my ops manager; she wanted to know how I got hurt. I explained to her that I was doing the work for 2 shifts with a hurt elbow. When questioned about it, my ops-manager said he had taken care of it. He hadn’t. He lied, but that’s how I perceived most managers must have to do this a lot to keep their jobs, as I had seen this in other departments. This is where the personnel manager said workers comp was not an option, and offered me a layoff for a month until I got better. I’m not stupid, I’m willing to bet if I had taken the layoff, they would never have called me back. Sneaky aren’t they? I left, having taken the layoff, but called my lawyer that evening. Wal-Mart created this suit themselves, just as they’ve created managers who lie. If they would only treat people with respect, this wouldn’t happen! Here’s the end of my Wal Mart experience: After settling with workers compensation, the company terminated me. I understand the termination, but they never notified me. I found out 2 months later, when I received paperwork from my 401k plan, then the denials from the insurance company. Well, you got me Wal-Mart! What goes around, comes around, and yours is coming when Obama is elected!”
