According to Arbill’s workplace safety blog, some of the most common workplace injuries are repetitive motion injuries, falling object injuries, slipping or tripping, and overexertion. Do any of these sound familiar? If yes, then you may be entitled to financial compensation and other accommodations from your employer.
Alert Your Supervisor
Most companies actively encourage their employees to communicate openly with their supervisors about any workplace-related injuries. In the event that you are injured, this must be done literally as soon as you possibly can, because there are rules regarding how soon you must report the accident. If you wait more than 30 days to report the injury, you may have lost your opportunity to file the claim.
If you are seeking worker’s compensation benefits, the only way to get them is to follow all of the rules as they are laid out. Thirty days is plenty of time to notify your supervisor in writing, but don’t wait on this one or you might forget — thus costing yourself an opportunity for compensation, as well as thorough treatment of your complaint.
Get Proper Medical Attention
Your health and wellbeing are top priority. If you’re suffering from a workplace injury, not getting proper care can make a bad situation worse — not to mention compromise any job performance you’re hoping to preserve. As you seek treatment, keep in mind that the medical professional you see must be approved by the Worker’s Compensation Board. This is critical to making sure that you get compensated later on for any help received. Obviously, if you have an emergency situation (machine entanglement, for example) medical attention is required immediately and should be the first step; paperwork can wait.
The Paperwork
After you have done all of this, you are required to file out paperwork to start receiving your benefits. This means you are going to mail in your Form C-3 to the Worker’s Compensation Board for their review and approval. The Board will review your claim to make sure all the proper steps were followed, the claim was filed within the time parameters, and that the injury itself is eligible for compensation. Once these are approved, you will start receiving benefits appropriate to the claim.
Afterword
While waiting on your benefits to start arriving, you don’t need to wait around and suffer needlessly. Follow all medical advice from your doctor to help you start feeling better. Take the time that you need for recovery, if necessary, but try to get yourself feeling well enough again to get back to work as soon as possible. This will help your case in front of The Board as a devoted employee, and furthermore you do not want to be stuck on Worker’s Comp for too long. With some luck you will be able to get yourself back to work and back to doing the things that you were doing before.
If for some reason you feel that you aren’t receiving the compensation which your injury merits, enlisting in the assistance of a personal injury expert may be necessary to persuade the Worker’s Compensation Board.
