I have a close friend who works all day behind a computer and has for over 20 years. During the past five years his hands, elbows, shoulders and neck have started to feel the stress. Over the last year the pain and difficulty has become progressively worse and the company Ergonomics department has actively attempted to make his work area a custom fit in order to reduce the stress.
My friend earns a great living at what he does, and over the last five months returns home a little early in order to make out with a heating pad, take whirl-pool baths, and attempt to recover before the next morning. The doctors have ruled out carpel-tunnel, tendentious, arthritis, and all the other things that could make a man hurt this badly. The most recent medical examination indicates the problem may simply be old age setting in and joint ware and tare. Basically, it’s boiled down to live with it or change careers.
My friend has coped rather well under the circumstance. Until last month, when a co-worker with a slight bit more seniority hurt his back one weekend while at the river. The co-worker attempted a few days of work walking in all hunched over and eventually entering the building while using a walker. The day he came to work with a walker the co-worker was sent home and told to use the disability each employee pays premiums to have for just such a problem.
My friend has been upset. Thinking the co-worker with a little more seniority has been receiving better treatment. After all my friend has been suffering in pain for months, so why would he not qualify and be sent home to collect disability that he pays for as well?
It looks like some kind of discrimination and no one would argue this fact under these circumstances. But, the truth is the difference in treatment is all about Liability and which pool of money is going to cover the two different problems these men face.
The co-worker who hurt his back, hurt it while playing on the weekend and will need to make use of his health insurance and disability benefits offered at a premium he pays. The workplace would certainly not want to aggravate his back condition and doesn’t want to be liable for making the problem worse. The co-worker will use his disability and health coverage and if these benefits run out or he never returns from disability the company will not have an obligation in the future.
My friend has a condition that may be a direct result of working hard for the past 20 years ten of which have been with the same company. His benefits may be from a different insurance policy rather than his health and disability policy, his injury may end up being a workers compensation issue. The company has a vested interest in sending the co-worker home to avoid aggravating the situation and creating an new problem that might qualify as a work related injury. Of course, they sent him home to get better.
The worker comp implications of my friends condition require a different level of company liability. They are already on the hook, and may be required to offer retraining, disability and a laundry list of services due to the fact this injury is directly related to work. Rather then send him home to recover, they would like to minimize the condition and see if this matter might be resolved without the need to pay a huge claim.
What might appear to be a discrimination matter or preferential treatment in the eyes of my friend is really all about who is liable. Thankfully, my friend was able to understand this different treatment after I explained the “reasons” not that these reasons made anything better, just that now my friend understands why!
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