Steps To Take If You’ve Experienced A Workplace-Related Burn Injury
Workers experiencing different types of injuries, including burns are sadly common. For those who are enduring workplace-related burns, one needs to make sure that they immediately report the said incident either or both to their supervisor or their HR department. One also needs to provide essential information such as witnesses’ contact information, as well as the photos where the burn happened along with photos of the burnt injury as well.
As soon as you’ve started to receive treatment in the hospital, all injured workers should make sure that they keep track of all medical expenses including but are not limited to hospitalization, medications, therapies, etc. Since you weren’t able to report for work during those days that you’re being treated, you also have to take into account your compensation / supposedly income for those days that you weren’t able to report for work. This is an important step since keeping track of these things let you recover these financial losses.
How To File A Workers’ Compensation Claim
As mentioned earlier, employees who have experienced burns and other injuries from their workplace are entitled to claim for a workers’ compensation plan. Unfortunately, they’re not automatically given to employees, which means that you have to manually initiate an application. Fill up the “Application to Adjust Claim” as your first step. This must be immediately done to increase your chances of getting approved. Once you’ve submitted your application, a review will be done to determine whether the workplace-related burn injury you’ve experienced is payable. While this may still vary depending on the situation, the majority of employees who are entitled to these benefits may include getting 2/3 of the salary they’re supposed to get while they’re unable to report for work. This is an addition to the medical expenses and the lump sum amount for the permanent damages from the said injury.
No need to worry though, the majority of people who’ve experienced workplace-related injuries are granted and benefits are given, unless the injury occurred outside the workplace, while off the clock, or if it was self-inflicted.
Employers Should Always Have Employer Injury Insurance
For employers, the law mandates that they should always have insurance for their employees, especially those that cover employer injuries. This is commonly referred to as the employer workers’ compensation. In line with that, it is also the employers’ responsibility to make sure that they are transparent with the benefits and all the essential information such as the post-eligibility. This should be sent out or posted in an area where all employees will be able to access such as break rooms or within the main workplace areas. It is also the employers’ responsibility to make sure that all types of injuries that occurred in the office are reported, especially those injuries that resulted in an employee not being able to report to work for 3 consecutive days or more. The report needs to be submitted to the WCC or Workers’ Compensation Commission.
All employees who have suffered an injury have 45 days to report the incident to their employer. The moment that the insurance that the employer carries decides that the benefits aren’t payable, the employee, on the other hand, may turn to the WCC to file their claim.
Generally speaking, if the employers’ insurer has denied the claim, another thing that the employee may turn to would be consulting a law firm that has extensive experience handling these types of claims. Provided that the requirements to prove your injuries and the worker’s claim is more difficult, a little bit of help from an experienced law firm significantly helps.
Another advantage of seeing an attorney right after the injury lets the worker focus on other more important things, such as their recovery. The hired law firm will then take care of almost everything, such as filing and submitting an application to the Worker’s Compensation Commission, up to the collection of all medical records, bills and other finances related to the injury. The lawyer will usually ask the employer’s insurance to settle, but if they don’t want to settle, this will then move forward to the court for an evidentiary arbitration hearing. Always remember that as a worker, the worker’s compensation claim is something you can hold on to in helping you secure your rights as a worker and your rights to be given fair compensation after the work-related burn injury. Contact one of our lawyers today.
