Is employer at fault

[Manley2]

A few weeks before I was injured at work I had make a complaint about the work area were my injury happened. Spoke with everybody I could including two of the company safety poeple. Nothing was changed until after my injury. My question is there anything I can do? I feel they should have to pay something for not doing anything about the problem before somebody was hurt.

[halftrak]

make sure they file a workmans comp claim, seems like sometimes it takes someone to actually get hurt for a company to realize there was a safety issue.But by then it is too late, did you document anything that was said to the safety people? I would ask for a copy of the incident that happened to you. just my opinion, Maybe someone on here will come along and help you out more than I could, Good Luck, Halftrak

[RNvic]

As for the safeety issue - file a complaint with osha

[Manley2]

We have a safety form we fill out online to report the problem. I have a copy of all that. So does my WC attorney. He hasn't said anything about it other then he wanted copies so that is why I was wondering what will come from it.

[AQA]

Being that WC is a no fault program, not much will come from it. There will not be a civil suit. One of the purposes of having WC coverage is just that, it is no fault. Meaning the injured employee nor the company is at fault. They may get thier hand slapped with a fine from OSHA and then make corrections.

[Manley2]

OSHA doesn't know anything about it becaue I will never call them again. Made a call a few months before my injury about another matter. In speaking with them I wanted to make a formal complaint which means after they got a paper I signed, which I told them I was sending over night so they would have it the next morning, they would show up at the companys door and investigate what happened. They decide that they couldn't wait until the next morning and decide on their owe to make it like they just received a phone call with no names. So they called the employer on the phone telling them this and then giving the company 30 days to write a letter tell them what happened. If it was so important why did they do this? To tell the company they were in trouble and give them time to hide the problem. So I would say this person has a conection with the company and I would never get anywhere with OSHA. I know this sounds like I'm just mad and making it look like more then it could be but why can they take a formal written complaint and not follow thru with it?

But back to the first part that is what I was wanting to know. If there was anything my attorney could do with it. I know WC doesn't pay for pain and suffering but in this case it just seems like they should have to pay more because if they would have done their part I wouldn't have been hurt in the first place.

[AQA]

OSHA was just following the guidelines they have. They are giving the compant time to fix the problem before they truely have to get involed. About ten years ago, I has working on a job and OSHA showed up. They looked t the job site and asked if they could look in my van. I complied. They site the company (a warning ) because I did not have a body harness. Thats all.

The attorney you have wanted a copy of the report incase at some point the IC or company wants to dispute the injury. He/she will have some ammo to counter the dispute.

[Manley2]

I just don't think OSHA has the right to take a formal complaint and make it one that looks like somebody called in and wouldn't give their name. If they felt it was so important they couldn't wait a day for my signed paper then they should have said so to me in the first place and I would have saved the $16 it cost to send it overnight. Just all to odd to me so I just don't trust them

[Cycler]

Your only recourse other than your comp claim is to file a civil suit for an intentional tort which means that the employer knew or should have reasonably known that a situation existed that would cause harm and had not rectified it. Unfortunately it takes real harm, loss of life or limb for instance, to justify the cost of one of these cases. There is no other way that the employer can be penalized, including OSHA.

[Lilly]

Do you happen to have access to safety meetings memos from work where problems like this are discussed? Do you know any co-worker who could get you copies of the memos from these meetings and give them to you on the sly? One would seemly have to prove that the company knew about the safety problem prior to your injury , then chose to do nothing about it.
Otherwise, Osha will simply slap their patties...and walk away.

Take care and good luck, Lilly