Failing To Report Workplace Injuries Can Have Serious Consequences
Recently, a company that manufactures plastics became liable to the Workers Compensation
Board for fines totaling $52500 for failing to report a series of job related injuries.An investigation revealed a pattern of injuries not being reported on a timely basis. By law companies are required to report workplace injuries within 10 days.
This company was ordered to appear in court and show evidence they had reported the injuries, as required by the law, to the Worker's Compensation Board.
The report showed that a large percentage of the unreported injury cases dated back a year or more. No company has ever been this harshly punished for failure to report injuries.
During their investigation, attorneys working for the Workers Compensation Board was unable to find another case involving a company being fined for failure to report or for under reporting instances of job-related injuries since the law was created in 1944.
A legal representative of the business in question couldn't even turn up any such cases. This was a lawyer who actually specialized in Worker's Compensation Law.
The Board members have not made any statements regarding the allegations. The manager for Human Resources at the plastic manufacturer has stated the company was looking forward to having a hearing that will resolve this issue.
This is because it is seen as an opportunity to further debate the issues with hopes of a fair examination of the data that has been provided thus far.
Accusations by the unions representing the workers are that the company intentionally withheld the injury reports from both the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Workers' Compensation Board.
Numerous people see the firm's actions as a method of beating the system in order to obtain a financial advantage. On the occasions when a worker's injury prohibited him from working, the plastic manufacturer paid him for that lost time and paid his medical costs.
One attorney working for the United Steelworkers of America commented that keeping a significant number of workplace injuries quiet avoids alerting the proper authorities to conducting wide-scale inspections; it also significantly cuts losses due to damages paid employees whose injuries become chronic even as far as 30 years into the future.
The plastic manufacturer filed 60 cases dating back to 1994 after the union accused the company of cheating the system. The company stipulated that some of these cases ought to have been reported sooner, but stated that there had been a misunderstanding of the reporting requirements.
The possibility remains that fines in the amount of $2,500 could be levied for each and every case that wasn't reported within ten days of injury, as required by law. These accusations are so serious that there could be criminal charges involved. A unit working under the state Attorney General was subsequently assigned to the case.
The number of cases and size of the investigation continues to grow as time goes on, including four workers who lost fingers or parts of their fingers while working at the plant.
Another former worker for the company, in a suit filed for damages totaling $350,000, claimed the firm terminated her health benefits even as they continued to cash out her insurance payments-all while she was out on Workers' Compensation.
It was announced by the Director of the United Steelworkers of America that based on what their union had discovered at one of the plants they were calling for a corporate-wide investigation of the company. This particular manufacturer has four other plants in operation in both Indiana and Illinois.
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