my employer kept telling me to call it “first aid” and not workman comp. then complained on how much this cost him, and how he has to pay all the time for employees injurys, trying to make me feel guilty for getting injured on the job. He didnt pay for prescription or time off to go back to eye dr and have follow up appointment after eye surgery. Is this legal in california?
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Was the injury work related? If you are working in an environment in which you can get pieces of metal in your eye, do you wear goggles at work.
Workmans compensation should cover the removal. Your healthcare coverage should cover the rest. However, unless you have paid personal and/or sick days, your employer does not have to pay for the time you take off for followups with the doctor.
You have a very nasty employer.Don’t listen to him.I’d sue the company!
Their was a case like that in Australia. The difference was, when the guy handed the employer his doctors certificate the employer fired him. When taken to court for unfair dismissal, the employer said the doctor’s certificate doesn’t count if the reason was, “he can’t come in today because of the intense Rain”. No joke, the employer argued in court the certificate said intense Rain, rather than pain – suffice to say the employer lost (look up tyree as the defendant in the NSW list of cases, it was one of the twenty cases against tyree). Anyway, if U.S. law is anything like Australian (and it;s usually more strict than ours) you can pretty much get everything out of workers comp.
My husband (we live in Michigan) was injured at work a few months ago and also had a piece of metal removed from his eye. Workers comp covered everything. The original visit to the medical centre, the visit to the eye specialist and all return visits, the perscriptions and his employer also paid him for the time off to go back to the eye doctor and there were at least 1/2 dozen visits as they can get very fussy about the eye. I don’t see how California should be any different. I think your employer is ripping you off and doesn’t want to file the workers comp claim. If that’s what he wants to do, fine but if you were injured at work he should cover all your expenses related to that injury. I would look into it if I was you.
I’m not an attorney but I can tell you that it is important that your injury be correctly identified from the beginning. If it’s work related or if it’s not work related.
Eye injuries are VERY serious. Please make sure that you followup with your doctor so that you can help prevent long term problems.
Let me ask you this – your employer is complaining because of the injury claim and he’s telling you to call it “first aid”. Seems to me like he knows the workmans comp ropes and has had plenty of claims before. That should be a wake up call to him that something is wrong on the work site THAT HE SHOULD BE ADDRESSING!
Followup with an attorney if it gets to be a problem. You might want to start keeping a journal of your appointments, Rx costs, what you have been told, when you were told, and who told you stuff —- better to be prepared and not need it than to have to try to remember stuff if you do!
GOOD LUCK.