Crushed at work

[MizzIndependent]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? MD

My boyfriend had a set of steel stairs on him on January 1st 2010. Crushed his whole body. He was taken off by ambulance to the ER and came out with a broken foot, sprained shoulder and a back contusion. He's been through therapy, and his foot isnt healing properly. His doctor cleared him to return to work for light duty, with a lot of restrictions, such as no walking more than 20 minutes, no lifting, no bending over, etc....

Our job gives out raises every 6 months based on performance. He was due for his raise the beginning of March. The job showed him a piece of paper stating they were only evaluating him on 4 of the 6 months, and was only going to give him $.10 (now mind you, our raises go either $.10, $.20, $.30)
IF they are evaluating 4 of the 6 months, how can they give him the lowest raise possible? Is it legal to do so?

My boyfriend has had a lawyer since the beginning because of circumstances surrounding his injury (our manager knew the equipment he used was faulty but never informed any of us, or took proper precautions to make sure it wasnt used). Now that the job knows he has a lawyer, they aren't accomodating his light duty, because they make him walk more than his restrictions, and now this thing with this raise.

What can he do?

 

[justalayman]

there is no law requiring any raises so unless you can support some form of illegal discrimination in the award, you can look at it as he got 10 cents more than they had to pay him.

 

[MizzIndependent]

thank you for that.

 

[justalayman]

You need to be cautious about going beyond the restrictions placed on your BF. If the doctor said no more than 20 minutes, he needs to comply with that. I presume it is the doctor of the employers choice so they should have no objections complying with orders from the doctor they hired.

I don't know what your BF does but understand that if there is truly no light duty work available for him, they can simply require he stay at home until released from restrictions by the doctor. It sounds like your BF is in construction of steel fabrication. Many employers prefer to have the employee off totally as allowing any work causes liability they simply do not want to be straddled with.

 

[MizzIndependent]

You need to be cautious about going beyond the restrictions placed on your BF. If the doctor said no more than 20 minutes, he needs to comply with that. I presume it is the doctor of the employers choice so they should have no objections complying with orders from the doctor they hired.

I don't know what your BF does but understand that if there is truly no light duty work available for him, they can simply require he stay at home until released from restrictions by the doctor. It sounds like your BF is in construction of steel fabrication. Many employers prefer to have the employee off totally as allowing any work causes liability they simply do not want to be straddled with.

He works in the airport as a baggage handler. I've seen light duty range from being inside filing papers and answering phones, to them having people scanning things. The doctors restrictions come from the doctor he was referred to the night he went to the emergency room. He's seen a doctor for the workers comp people, and they both agree on his restrictions, and are about equal.

 

[justalayman]

I understand the ladder thing now. I was thinking something totally different.

best of luck to ya but be cautious about not following the doctors instructions. It can affect both sides of the situation adversely.

 

[MizzIndependent]

Thank you so much for your advice