Disability Advice Needed Quickly

[Acropolis]

First of all, dont take this the wrong way, I am not saying that what the company have done/are doing is right in anyway.

 

But when you came back to work and your wrist was still hurting you, why did you continue to attempt to lift heavy loads? I appreciate it is a difficult situation with your employers wanting you back to normal duties etc

 

I also have a problem with my wrist, thankfully as I am the boss of the company now it doesnt affect me so much. But when the problem first arose I was working for a company, I had a little time off to rest the wrist, and when it started feeling better I went back to work, but if I was doing something and it caused a lot of pain and discomfort then I woudlnt do it.

 

So why did you keep doing things that were going to potentially make it worse?

 

I understand the employer may have questions to answer in respect of the way you been treated, not retraining etc, but as it was not an accident that happened at work, and was infact an under lying condition as you have stated then I fail to see how they are responsible for the actual injury what so ever, if the pain was that bad then you should have said no I can not do that, they can not physically make you do it and make the injury worse, if they did then yes you may well have a point for an injury claim, but as they cant and havent physically made you do it, you choose to do it, then no there shouldnt be a claim.

 

If by refusing to do it, they then dismissed you, I agree a claim against them for that action would be acceptable, but cant see how they are responsible for a personal injury claim, not having a pop just dont agree with that, you alwyas have the choice to say no.

 

What weights were you lifting, were they under the 25kg load that the HSE recomend for an individual to lift, were there other suitable lifting devices available? were you physically capable for performing the role before your wrist became an issue?

 

 

 

As I said, I am not having a pop, and have deepest sympathy and understanding for your problem. But I think that we have become too much of a blame culture in this country and something must always be someone else's fault. Not that I am saying this is your fault, so dont take that the wrong way.

 

People always go on about the companies responsibility to its employee's, but what about the employee's responsibilities to the company. At the end of the day, a company has to make money to keep going... fact

 

I dont run my company for the good of the employees or their families, I run it to make as much money as possible so I can retire at a decent age and have a good life there after.

 

That is not to say I dont care about the employee's, and I do everything I can to make sure they are happy and safe, and sort out any issue's they may have fairly and quickly, and due to that I have a small turnover of staff, havent had any leave since i started the company 2 years ago. Things need to be taken in context, my girlfriend has had problems with her back in the past, before I met here, and due to this she finds it difficult to work at a normal desk, so the gov dept she works for have had to source a special desk and chair for her to work from, costing them about £900 I think it was. Now I wouldnt expect her or anyone to suffer like that at work, but at the end of the day, if that case was someone working for me, then I simply wouldnt be able to afford/justify spending that much on a desk and chair for someone.

 

As I have said, not meaning to have a rant or a pop at you personally.

 

Hope you manage to get things sorted out.

[Scribblar]

My work gave me light loads as a temporary measure. Occ Health agreed that as a temporary measure light loads would be suitable, but that I would need re-trained so I wasn't constantly lifting. My work agreed, but the training never came.

 

I pursued it, receiving excuses that ranged from "we only have 1 trainer" (my particular depot has over 800 workers, there is no way that 5 shifts are covered by one trainer) "it's his day off" to "we're too busy, next week," to "there is no room on your shift for job rotation."

 

I asked to change shift, was denied this for months. Eventually cancelled the change and applied again, this time stating childcare reasons. I was changed within a week to a shift with much more job rotation.

 

They kept me on the same job.

 

I have 3 young kids, I couldn't afford to go on the sick. i kept asking for retraining. They kept telling me they were doing their best, I needed to be patient, it was coming, it was in the pipeline.

 

A team leader told me the line manager said I wasn't to get training as I wasn't meeting totals. I spoke to the line manager and he said he had checked my occ health and it didn't say I wasn't to pick totals. I spoke to occ health. They said that they hadn't wrote that as it "was so obvious they'd figured anyone could work it out." It was put in my occ health report that I had trouble communicating with my line manager. After my team leaders seen it (I had to take a copy of my report to the team leader myself. It was emailed to the line manager but he never bothered to pass it on to the people who actually decided what work I was doing.) I was told to take it to my manager. He read it then screamed... "I HAVE NO TROUBLE COMMUNICATING WITH YOU. I'M COMMUNICATING RIGHT NOW."

 

He didn't seem to understand it was saying I have trouble, not him. He also didn't seem to understand that screaming in my face wasn't communicating. I had various other problems with this line manager. I complained to his manager. They suggested an informal meeting rather than a grievance. He denied everything, making me out to be a paranoid liar. They backed him up completely. At no point was I made aware of who my area manager was or what to do with a complaint against the operations manager of my warehouse. I didn't know my rights, but I wanted to keep my job, so I dropped it.

 

The line manager also stated that he had never denied me training, that training was coming, that the team leader's were acting in his name without his knowledge and he would deal with them.

 

My heaviest weight (to lift) was 12.5kg. I was on light duties. But 1700 12.5kg boxes is still 21250 kg, or 21 tonnes a day. Added to this, you might get 60 12.5 kg boxes on a single pallet. That's 750kg, which I would have to drag over 100 feet on a pallet truck. (okay, so it got lighter as we went further, but still).

 

The work could have trained me on a ppt, so that I didn't need to use a pallet truck. That way I would have been lifting, but not dragging. No other lifting devices were available, but there are plenty of non-lifting jobs in my department, things like goods-in.

 

If I'd needed a £900 chair, they could have afforded it easily. They are one of the biggest employers in the UK, with a massive turnover, and every year every employer in my depot gets a bonus of over £400. It was mostly this one line manager who my work have admitted to having problems with. He has an attitude that all sick/disabled people are fakers.

 

I know you are not saying it's my fault or whatever, but I'm not just claiming for claiming.

[Acropolis]

My post either came across wrong or was taken the wrong way.

 

I am not suggesting for one minute that you are claiming for the sake of claiming. What I am trying to say is, at any point, weather it be right or wrong you could have left to find another job, and then taken action against them for causing the course of action.

 

I would not normally say take this action, but where something is causing potentially serious future problems to your health, then sometimes these things have to be done.

 

As I said it does sound like the employer has been acting incorrectly and should be bought to task for that, they should not be able to get away with it at all.

[Scribblar]

Okay, sorry.

 

I'm a bit ratty the now. Yes, I could have left, perhaps should have... but the wages were good enough that I could work part-time and since I have 3 kids (the oldest 5) and I've worked there nearly 4 years that was important to me. My rota was good, too, and I just kept hoping for training.

[joebloggs]

Here's my take on it.

Has your employer at anytime carried out any manual handling training.

Has your employer at anytime spoken to you about any risk assessments, or carried out a risk assessment on your return to work?

On the Occ health side of life, has your supervisor/ occ health or indeed anyone regularly reviewed you?

I might be worng here, but i think that if the matter went to tribunal they could well find in your favour but there is a bit of a kick back in that since april 2009 if they judge that you have contributed to the resultant termination of your employment they can reduce an award by up to 25%.

Now we have only basic details, and there are those here that are far more experienced and wiser in such matters, and i will happily stand corrected on any point.

 

In preperation for any meetings with advisors over this you need to set out in chronological order what has happened, giving a decent level of detail.

Collate everything you have from the employer, doctors etc into a sensible order and make copies of everything (tiem consumign i know but it helps make sure you do not loose anything.

Keep a diary now of what goes on, dates, times, names and details etc.

[Scribblar]

Manual handling training. A year after i started, and again last year.

 

Risk assesment. To my knowledge, never.

 

The occ health regularly assessed me. The work ignored her recommendations.

 

Thanks.

[ads2014]

Here's my take on it.

Has your employer at anytime carried out any manual handling training.

Has your employer at anytime spoken to you about any risk assessments, or carried out a risk assessment on your return to work?

On the Occ health side of life, has your supervisor/ occ health or indeed anyone regularly reviewed you?

I might be worng here, but i think that if the matter went to tribunal they could well find in your favour but there is a bit of a kick back in that since april 2009 if they judge that you have contributed to the resultant termination of your employment they can reduce an award by up to 25%.

Now we have only basic details, and there are those here that are far more experienced and wiser in such matters, and i will happily stand corrected on any point.

 

In preperation for any meetings with advisors over this you need to set out in chronological order what has happened, giving a decent level of detail.

Collate everything you have from the employer, doctors etc into a sensible order and make copies of everything (tiem consumign i know but it helps make sure you do not loose anything.

Keep a diary now of what goes on, dates, times, names and details etc.

 

Some of your advice is slightly misleading, you state that from April 2009 the Judge can issue a reduction where a person is felt to have contributed to their termination - In actual fact this has been the case for a long time.

 

I believe you refer to the ACAS Code issued in April 2009 and the recent changes in the law, however the power has existed long before then.

 

More importantly the employers appear to have two legal responsibilities in this case firstly Health & Safety and secondly the DDA.

 

In the case of Paris v Stepney Borough Council HL, the House of Lords held that where an employee is vulnerable due to their disability, that the employers duty of care under the Health & Safety Act is of a much greater standard.

 

The employers could actually be liable for this, espcially as they carried out no risk assessment, which is a legal requirement in such cases - If it went to Tribunal, it would be the employers which would find that the compensation would be increased as they were at fault.

 

The DDA would also apply and they would find it very difficult to justify, espcially by not complying with Health & Safety.

 

In the case of a compromise agreement you would legally be required to see a solicitor.

[joebloggs]

Hence the caveat, i will gladly stand corrected!!