So, my wife recently (july) had surgery on her ankle. Two tendons had to be surgically reattached. She has been in and out of a walking boot ever since. Well, back at the end of October, she was stepping out from behind her workstation when she tripped over one of her co-workers who had backed up in her path. This caused her to step on her foot wrong, and long story short, she was out of work for 12 days while they determined the cause. (Partially re-tore one of the ligaments) Fast forward to today, we are still arguing with the company that handles Workmans Comp. They finally tell us that they are waiting on the Dr's notes from the doc they sent us to. Then they drop the bombshell. What the lady told us was that since my wife was only out for 12 days, that the first 7 days would not be covered. So, she would only get paid for 5 days total. Does anyone know if this is correct? Or do we need to go ahead and seek the services of Legal Representation? Any advice is welcome.
Yep the first 7 days are NOT covered by WC. Her company should have picked up the tab for that. I fought WC off and on for over 2 years so I know a little bit about it.
If this is a small company my advice would be for her to put out feelers for another job. Large companies that have HR will probably be more forgiving but with smaller companies that I know around here they have always scrambled to find a reason to get rid of someone once a claim is filed no matter the reason.
The first 7 days are never covered by WC. The company should have other arrangements to cover that time until WC kicks in. She needs to request it none the less since this in an OTJ injury.
correct me if I'm wrong but won't a company burn through your vacation / sick days or whatever else you may have before you start getting workers comp.
If you work for a company that allows for sick days then yes they will use those first. Some may burn your vacation time and it's legal for them to but not many do.
Actually, she asked her manager about using her PTO that she had accumulated. Her manager told her that they could not do that, it all had to go thru the 3rd party the company uses. Actually, a very big company. And, the work force is unionized. They still got rid of her. Found trumped up reasoning, denied her union rep access, and dumped her. And thats not even the tip of the iceberg on how they have screwed her over.