light duty wages less than min, wages

[donner]

I have been working light duty wages since august and now that I said something about mim. wages they told me I am getting a raise on Monday to my regular wages. What is going on here can they pay under mim. wages or is this bad faith?

[Pooh]

Hmmmmmmmmm i would ask them to correct all the wages where you were paid under your reg wages and give them a week to make the correction if not turn them into the labor board

[donner]

Pooh Wrote:Hmmmmmmmmm i would ask them to correct all the wages where you were paid under your reg wages and give them a week to make the correction if not turn them into the labor board

thanks ...I have a pinched nerve from shoulder injury. I have been through alot. They have not paid me on time since day one.

[rholmes]

Hey Donner,


I am not sure of what state you are in, but I am in CA and my employer tried to do the same thing about 13 years ago. One guy went to the state disability office and found out that if you are on light duty and they are paying you less then your regular wages you were entitled to the difference through workers comp. Once we all started putting in claim forms they hurried up and changed it. Check your state website as far as loss of wages and see if the same applies. We now make our reg. wages but we can not put in overtime I have always worked 12 hours so I was still loosing 4 hours a day.


Good luck I hope this helps



RH

[Pooh]

It shouldn't matter if your on light duty or not - no one is allowed to pay you less than min wages which is federal law - and in some cases state law (some state have higher min wages than the federal min wages)

Also if your union - check your contract - if your pay grade 8 and get hurt - they can reduce your pay grade after you have been on light duty for a certain number of weeks in some cases if it is written in the contract. I know it was in for the company that I worked. Also Like with rholmes, I was told I was not able to work overtime while I was on light duty - but I think that was just words, because they said that, and the first time I mentioned that I couldn't work a Saturday because I was on light duty - that rule was tossed out the window and I was able to get any overtime that my department was getting.

[donner]

I am going to see my attorney on wednesday.
This injury has been a nightmare. I was hurt in august. It is a shoulder injury. I was being treated by our plant doctor and then he went on vacation so they sent me to an orthopaedic doctor. He did MRI and nerve testing which showed I had a streched nerve from my neck down over my shoulder and he said this will take time to heal. He said he would send me to another ortho doc for nerve pain. This next doc was a joke. He had his lady w/c nurse with him all the time. He put me on the light duty but didn't know what meds to give me because I can't take NASIDS due to I have PKD ( polycystic kidneys ) I also take 5 different meds for high blood pressure due to my kidneys. My kidney function is also declining and they really don't want to hear about it but then again they don't know how to treat me. They gave me Vicodin which gave me terrible head pain. I then went to my nep. and she gave me Fioricet for the head pain. I was like a dish rag and couldn't even get out of bed. This story gets better......I then went to the dentist for a teeth cleaning and wound up with an infected tonsil. I couldn't talk so went to the ER and an absess formed on my tonsil and I was in ICU for 2 days. This is September. Given morphine and steriods which took my pain away. I was off from work for two weeks and felt pretty good. Was released from the throat doctor to return to work but needed to have my tonsils removed in about a month after they healed. We are now in October. My tonsils needed to heal because of bleeding. I then seen the ortho doc and he set me up for therapy at work. We have our own medical building. I went for therapy and this guy was rubbing my neck and starting making an old neck injury that I had from a car accident return. Oh just great. Now I don't know what to do I am hurting so bad. I was seen buy by the ortho doc again and to stop all other meds and the therapy and try Lyrica. That knocked me out and had to go to work in pain. Went back to the ortho dock again and now he didn't know what to do so my wife suggested 4 hours and he agreeed. I thought the w/c nurse would jump out of her skin. But he said he wanted me to see a pain man. doc. so they made an appointment for me. Went to the pain mag. doc. and it was someone who knew me and said ortho doc want me to have an epidural injection. She then said I can't have it due to my tonsil infection that it could spread the infection through out my body!!!!!!!!Can you believe this. They are screwing with my life!!!!So she said beings it was so close to the operation she would see me after I get released from my tonsil doc. I had an up coming appointment with the first ortho doc for my shoulder the one who did the testing because the other one doesn't know what to do for me. The doctor came in with a smile and wanted to give me an injection in my shoulder. Said the w/c nurse ordered this. Well to his suprise I was told by my Nep doctor not to get any injections due to I was just on steirods from being in the hospital and will be on them again after my tonsil operation in a week and I don't think this is any good for my kidneys also. So we talked a bit and told him about what pain mag. doc. said too. and it was a Friday and my surgery was for the next wednesday so he said he would take me out of work due to all the pain till I had my surgery. After he left the w/c nurse came in and she said you must go to work. The doc never came back in the room and was so upset but the w/c nurse said go to work! I went to work and talked with the nurse at medical but went home was in too much pain. I did work the next two days before my surgery.
So now Nov I had the tonsil surgery. Dec 3rd went back to work. I was getting paid light duty wages under mim. wages along with w/c but the w/c checks are a month behind. My one check of light duty wages was $.28 after taxes. and then there was never a w/c check to go with it..........w/c at work said she didn't know how to pay me and to sign this supplemental agreement to release my checks. Well this changed my w/c pay to less and I only receive one lousy check. I have been paid up to Nov 20.
I called an attorney for the simple reason I am not getting paid and my wife said how can they pay you under mim. wages all this time? Well i was called in the office at work and asked a few questions about doctor appointments coming up and she said oh by the way you are getting a raise on Monday up to your regular wages. I didn't question it just none of this makes any sence. I can't wait till I see the attorney on Wednesday.

this is a nightmare.......

[Pooh]

sounds like it - and the first thing I would ask for is that the attorney get rid of the NCM that is interfering with your doctors orders

[vickinat]

Donner,
I agree with Pooh, the first thing you need to do is to get rid of the NCM. I'm in Pa. also and found out thru my lawyer that I wasn't required to have the W/C NCM. I had her authoriztion revoked in July, by this time she had already caused me so much trouble. She also was trying to control my treatment for the I/C advantage and not mine. I wish that I would have known my rights in the beginning of my injury (11/06), I would never allowed the NCM. Unfortuantly I was told by the ins.adjuster that I had to comply with the NCM, and this wasn't true.

I wish you the best of luck.
Vickie

[donner]

vickinat Wrote:Donner,
I agree with Pooh, the first thing you need to do is to get rid of the NCM. I'm in Pa. also and found out thru my lawyer that I wasn't required to have the W/C NCM. I had her authoriztion revoked in July, by this time she had already caused me so much trouble. She also was trying to control my treatment for the I/C advantage and not mine. I wish that I would have known my rights in the beginning of my injury (11/06), I would never allowed the NCM. Unfortuantly I was told by the ins.adjuster that I had to comply with the NCM, and this wasn't true.

I wish you the best of luck.
Vickie

[donner]

thanks for the replys. I will update you this week when I see the doc snd my attorney.