What do all these people have in common?
They are all people who can file for workers compensation benefits. But more often than not, they don't.
These people care about their jobs, in fact they care too much, placing their offices and their office performance goals above their own health and well being.
They don't realize that by doing nothing not only are they are hurting themselves they are hurting fellow employees.
There are two types of Worker's Compensation claims. Automatically we think of a traumatic on-the-job injury, of someone falling. People who fall or hurt themselves within a shift have the right to file a CA-1 for . Management has to give them administrative leave for the day of injury and up to 45 days of continuation of pay. But they have to see a doctor and management cannot refuse them this right. If management does refuse you should see your union Steward.
The other type of Worker's Compensation claim is for an occupational disease. Unlike an on-the-job injury you can't say "At 3:15 pm March 7, 2007 I became disabled." Occupational disease claims are gradual, caused by the work itself, or aggravating a condition to the point that it is disabling.
Two of the most common occupational diseases are stress and carpal tunnel syndrome.
Social Security is an agency driven by numbers and statistics. Many offices are driven to meat goals, often unrealistic goals. The drive to meet goals, even realistic ones can create stress.
Likewise, the monitoring process creates stress. Teleservice Centers are truly the sweatshops of the agency. Call counts govern employee survival. Reminders from your supervisor -- while on a call with a member of the public -- only increases stress. Filing a workers comp claim in a TSC can show that TSRs are not factory workers. They are not producing widgets, they are dealing with human beings who have differences in understanding and have differences in dealing with issues.
SRs too are often the first point of contact and are likely to face stress both from the public, management, even other employees. The self check in process that management established often result in mass confusion in reception areas with SRs being made to serve as traffic cops as well as federal workers. Perhaps self check out may work at Supermarkets, but self check in creates problems for the SR who is the first contact the public has with SSA.
If an employee is suffering from job related stress she or he should file a Worker's Compensation claim.
Technology not only causes injury it can worsen pre existing conditions. Many years ago the agency had DRTs (data transcribers) to type documents. They also had clericals. Now CRs are their own clericals, enter their own data into the computer. Before they would write, a more natural motion than typing. Now, between sending letters, notices, and other documents as well as taking claims on line they have become very susceptible to carpal tunnel syndrome. And people get injured not only with carpal tunnel but with other work related computer injuries.
Another common occupational disease is chemical exposure. It is that it is not enough to go home to get away from the exposure, a person needs to get a CA-16 and see someone such as a hospital emergency room and get something documented to indicate that the person was treated for exposure to a chemical at work, or a fall etc.
For chemicals a good strategy to use is the Hazard Communication Standard of OSHA which 29 CFR l9l0.1200. Otherwise known as the Right to Know Standard, this Standard requires that management must inform every employee of the chemicals to which she or he is exposed. They can include things like products used by a janitor to clean the office during working hours.
How do you file an occupational disease claim? Simple you complete a CA-2 and write up a narrative about what happened and how your work factors affected your stress. By law Management has to take your claim.
In all cases -- traumatic injury or occupational disease -- medical documentation is required. Workers compensation is similar to disability claims If Joe or Jane public can file there is no reason why an injured or disabled employee of SSA cannot file.
Following are some of the forms that are needed to be completed.
For a traumatic injury, as a fall, complete a CA-1 and then get a CA-16 to go see a doctor. Management should have these forms and give them to you, but if they do not, many of them are available on your regional human resources intra net. Or on the Department of Labor Office of Workers Compensation site.
The main difference between workers compensation an employee who is disabled are two words: at work. For any occupational illness such as stress or carpal tunnel or other repetitive strain injury a person has to indicate that the condition is something that happened at work.
You must to include a narrative; the narrative should indicate how, when , where and why the situation occurred. There are a number of workers compensation checklists and most works comp forms have the initials CA in front of them.
The overall workers comp form is 35A.
For computer related claims the form for a checklist is a CA-35H and a person should indicate on the narrative how many hours she or he types and how the injury is related top work and that often that they do not use their hands for things such as playing tennis, playing the guitar, gardening etc and if they do so that the majority of hand use is related to the computer.
For stress the form is a CA-35G and the person is to indicate how factors of work are related to the stress and if the person had any prior stress situation. What works compensation law basically
states is that management officials by definition do things that get people upset. If a person is stressed by anything administrative in nature, the claim will
normally be approved if the person has successful grievances or EEO complaints. The local grieves this action and wins,.
This is fine.
Otherwise it can be noted that a person may have a situation that involves a matter such as stress over TSC monitoring which is related to the job.
Along with the narrative it is important to get objective medical evidence. For instance, an employee who files a claim for a broken ankle should get that ankle X-rayed and it should be noted how the ankle was fine before the person tripped over a telephone cord.
A person who has carpal tunnel will benefit from an EMG test or nerve conduction test with a positive result.
An individual who files a claim can file a claim for a pre- existing such as high blood pressure. But the person needs to show how factors of employment caused the condition to get worse. Someone may wish to do this with stress and showing how their medical condition has gotten worse as a result of monitoring etc.
In any kind of claim a person will benefit by having (particularly with accidents) witness statements from individuals who may have seen what took place.
Also, remember that in any workers comp , management must process the case but they can send in a statement of opposition called controversion.
If denied file for a hearing, if the hearing does not work, you file a recon. For more information consult the DOL's web site
AFGE Reps can provide more information on this program