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Employee Claiming Injury (Florida)

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BeachBum*

Junior Member
Hello All , Hopefully someone can give me some input into my situation.

I have a Florida Based Beach Business.

The Business consists of JetSki Rentals / Beach Chair & Umbrella Rental Concessions along the beach.

I have a Part Time Employee who started working for me May 2008 on Mondays and Wednesdays 9 am - 5pm/5:30pm

This past Wednesday we ( Me and my part Time Employee) pushed a waverunner into the ocean like we always do and and the end of the day picked it up to place it back onto the trailer and this part time employee also picked up and stacked up approx 50 Beach Chairs in several piles when we close the beach at the end of the day. I then gave him his paycheck and said thank you and he replied "See ya Next Monday, Thanks ! " and off he went.. I watched him walk to his car and then I drove away.

The next Day, 24 hours later on Thursday at 5 pm I receive a Text Message from him telling me " I injured my Foot Yesterday at work pain was not bad yesterday but today its very painful I will rest it today and call you tomorrow and let you know the status."

Friday , I receive a phone call from him and he asked me if I had workers compensation. I told him since there are only me my business partner and you working for the business we are not required to have workers compensation if company has under 4 employees. He then goes on to tell me that he is going to go to the hospital to get x-rays and seek medical attention as he believes his foot might be fractured .. I asked my part time employee why didnt he inform me at the time he alleged to have injured his foot on Weds the day it happened. He responded " I kicked a rock in the sand and thought it would be ok". I then went on to ask him how do I know he didnt hurt himself on Thursday when he was off ? He said he couldnt believe I would question him and doubt him. I told him I was only protecting myself by asking these questions..

He said if we will not pay his hospital bills that he will sue us.

Now my question to you ..

1) Is My Part Time Employee that works less then 17 hours a week required to tell me about the injury when the injury in fact happened and not after 24 hours after I saw him walk away from the beach looking perfectly fine.

2) If he is claiming this injury and it happened elsewhere and does sue me will I be able to counter sue ?

3) Im open to any advice from you all here.. and feel free to ask any questions that I may not have asked or might need to know as I have been in business since 1995 and never had something like this happen before.
I have had guys get hurt at work and was happy to take care of medical bills when in fact we knew it happened at the workplace. But this guy I believe is running a scam and got hurt on his day off and since he has no health insurance trying to put it on my company.

Thanks in advance for your time in helping me with my problem..

BB


PS: One more question .. He has been late numerous times to work. I already told him about this problem and that he needed to be at work at 9 am he still continues to come late, can I let him go for this , I was in the process of looking for a New Part Time Employee when this alledged injury happened. Im afraid to fire him since this alledged injury claim now surfaced.. dont want it to look like he claimed he got hurt at work and now I fired him.

I am calling my part timer today to see what happened at the hospital and also tell him to take off this coming MON / WEDS to rest and get better.. and I will require a Dr's Note attesting that he is physically able to push a 900 lbs Jetski and that his foot is better .. ( Can I request a Dr's Note for his return to work? )

Thanks again..
 
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BeachBum*

Junior Member
Thank You for your response.

I am still waiting to hear back from him and have not contacted him nor will I.

If he shows up to work next Monday I will tell him we no longer need his services.

I also changed all the locks to the business today as I am not trusting him with returning the keys to the business.

I will update you with what happens with this employee.


Once again Thank You.

BB
 

BeachBum*

Junior Member
Sunday Oct. 5th , 2008

Part Time Employee Calls Says to Me that he has a bad sprain and will be at work tomorrow, Monday, Oct. 6th, 2008.

I asked him if its a bad sprain how will he be able to push waverunners and lift and carry chairs in the sand and run to the water in the event a waverunner needs assistance? He said he was ok .. I said take time to rest your foot we do not want you re injuring the foot or making it worse.

I then informed the part time employee that upon discussion with my business partner we want him to take 2 weeks off and rest his foot and upon return he must present a Doctor's Note stating he is able to work at 100% capacity and we will see in two weeks what we will do.

He then hung up the phone on me.

More to follow.

Most likely We will let this employee go due to him being late 80% of the time since he has been employed by us. Next day he comes to work and is late (which Im sure he will be) we are going to tell him his services are no longer needed.
 

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