AK safety stats are bogus

squeemy.....That's not particularly surprising. I've been told that they have been known to bring a person in and let them sit through a shift to keep from having a "Lost Time Accident".

what's surprising is that they're finally getting nailed for it.

Hermes wrote: 409 wrote: squeemy.....That's not particularly surprising. I've been told that they have been known to bring a person in and let them sit through a shift to keep from having a "Lost Time Accident".     Lots of companies do this, it's nothing new nor limited to any one company. A steel company next to GE had a guy with a broken leg sit in the guard shack all day and paid him a percentage of his regular pay. The company I use to work for would have you do office work if you were injured. The bad part of this is if the injury is work related and the employee does not retain a workman comp attorney, then the company can make you do this and you don't get workman comp for the injury.

Agreed! Unfortunately it is a sign of how Honor is no longer as prevailant in Big Business as it has been in times before. We go thru Cycles. It was bad 100yrs ago until People got sick of it and passed Laws to Regulate Business.

Now 100yrs later, they have figured out how to around the Law, and in some (a lot) paid Lobbyist to influence (in some cases, pay) our Reps to get the Law changed.

A new set of Regs are in order.

I no nothing about AK, but as a business owner:

Irisner - Could you be refering to "self insured" companies ? I do know by experience because I have a 15% disability due to on the job injury and self insured companies will go to any length to cook the numbers. I always advise anyone hurt on the job to seek an attorney for self protection. I seriously doubt that in Spiders case an employee would need an attorney, but in large corporations like AK & my former employer it is a must. And I agree with you that by having employees on light duty it does skew the numbers. But theres not much that can be done about this because if a doctor says yes your injured but you can sit and type then taking light duty is your only option.

 

Plus self insured companies can lose their insurance rating if they appear to the state as having to many injuries if reported. Thus the need for light duty & the need to keep those numbers down. But again I can't express the importance enough on having a workman comp attorney.

Irisner- I can give you a personal situation on how big corporations handle injuries and how an employee reacts when they think their job is threatened.

In late 1993, I was working for P&G at their Sharon Woods Technical Center on Reed-Hartman in Cincy. At the time, P&G was in a downsizing mode and everyone was fearful for their jobs, not wishing to give P&G any reason to fire them. I felt the same way. I went to a company function at GE Park down off 275 and tore my Achilles Tendon playing softball. I was in a full leg cast for 6 weeks. After sitting at home for one week, I started worrying about my employment, so I ask the Dr. if I could go back into work to perform light duty. He approved light duty and I went back to work in a wheelchair and some crutches. When I got to work, one of the tasks I was asked to do was to go into the pilot plant and weigh some ingredients into a perfume batch. A perfume batch can have approximately 100 ingredients in the formula and one must go to the shelf the ingredient is on, carry it over to the balance and weigh it, then, return it to the shelf and on to the next ingredient. I used one crutch to "hobble" over to the shelf, balance myself on one crutch and "hobble" back over to the bench to weigh the ingredient. Some of the ingredients were in 25 lb. cans. Normally 25 lbs, is no problem, but try carrying that using one leg, a crutch and the "hobble' method. Takes a long time to do and risks a fall and a safety hazard. Now, people would ask, at this point, why didn't you talk to his supervisor about the situation, Answer- employees, when they are intimidated and believe they could lose their job for any reason, will do whatever it takes to hold on to their job. The last thing I wanted to do was to be in their radar sight, giving them ammunition to can me. By the way, my last day was Feb 1, 1994 after 10 years with the company. A year later, they downsized my wife for medical reasons after 15 years with the company. Needless to say, we're not very fond of P&G. This goes to show you what some employers are capable of inside the company walls as to handling injuries.