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On the job injury

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K

kapua

Guest
I am a cashier at a well known gas station in my state. In the beginning of Aug. 2000, I got hurt on the job. It was a back injury due to constant lifting in our beverage cooler. I got hurt on a delivery day. We are open 24 hrs a day 7 days a week and have three different shifts running all day. The morning and the afternoon shifts are manned by 4 Philipino workers and a Philipino Manager. The manager does not require these 4 workers to go into the cooler and help to put away some of the delivery.
I have been out of work for these 3 months. There is a company nurse who attends almost all of my appointments. She keeps in contact with the company, the insurance co., and whatever doctor she is sending me to. During my three months out she has:
1. Told me that when I return to work she usually starts all her patients back at 4 hours a day for at least 2 weeks. Depending on how they are recouperating.
2. Missed one of my appointments with the back specialist, causing him to decide that I should stay out 2 more weeks. She referred me to this back specialist.
3. Remarked that I should lose weight, in reference to my back pain.
4. Now sent me back to work. At 8 hours on lite duty. There is a list of job duties that a cashier performs during the 8 hours that he/she works. Over half the list is checked off NO. But she is insisting that I return at 8 hours.
5. On one visit to the back specialist he said that I needed to get an MRI done. His assistant said they were busy that day so she would make the appointment with the MRI department and call me later with the information. I waited for over a week and no one called me. Finally, I called them and no one knew I needed to take an MRI. The appointment was never made. When they finally did set the appointment, I had to stay out of work another week until the day of the appointment. Then it was another 2 weeks before I saw the doctor again. And in all that waiting, the doctors office and the company nurse failed to inform the insurance co. of their mistake. They did not issue me a workers comp. paycheck because they were pending the results of the MRI that was never scheduled.
I practically took care of my situation myself. If these people are getting paid they should do their job, I am just a cashier.
For some reason, with no apparent need, my boss has hired someone else onto our staff. Other co workers I talk to are thinking the same thing I am. On the list of job duties, if I do one thing wrong, it's considered grounds for termination. Example: I can fill up the condiment tray for hot dogs. But all the condiments are in a cabinet very low to the ground that I am not to go in to according to this duty sheet. Someone else has to get everything I need.
I have asked the nurse if I can start off at 4 hours being that I am just returning to work. She stated to me that it has been three months already. I am starting to get the feeling that the insurance co. and my co. are pressuring her to get me back to work. She keeps reminding me about how long I have been out of work when clearly half the time was because of her. The back specialist she was sending me to referred me to someone else because he didn't know what else he could do for me. I am still in pain. The other doctor detected what was wrong with me, he sent me to more therapy with people in his clinic who did the same things to me that the other therapy clinic was doing. He called it manipulative therapy and said that between one and six visits I should be doing better. I am not. And despite the nurse's comment about losing weight, the weight was there before this pain ever was. I am 28 years old and have never suffered with extreme back pain until now.
1. Should I be forced to go back to work for 8 hours when she usually starts people off at 4? I have been out for 3 months.
2. Am I paranoid in thinking that this new person is there to replace me? I, and several of my co-workers, think that on the night that I return to work for 8 hours, if I go for the ketchup in the cabinet, they are going to fire me.
Thank You,
Honolulu, Hawaii
 


ALawyer

Senior Member
This is a workers comp question, and not discrimination against you . There are real questions such as your ability to do the job, and the firm's need to make reasonable accomodation. But a workers comp lawyer in Hawaii would have to help you.
 

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