Steps To Be Taken If You Are Severely Hurt While At Work
In recent years, Iowa has become one of the states with one of the largest injury rates for employees. For this reason, a Des Moines workers comp lawyer is not hard to find. In fact, a Des Moines workers comp attorney is very good at getting employees the amount of cash they are entitled to after they have been injured while on the job. To make things easier, it is important for all employees to know what exactly they should do when they are seriously injured at work. Below, is a list of the steps that need to be followed after a serious injury at work:
1. Call an ambulance, assuming you are conscious enough to do so. (If you are not able, it is safe to assume that someone will call an ambulance for you). For example, if you break a bone while at the office or on a work site for the company, you should call 911 and get to a hospital as quickly as possible.
2. Assuming you are not unconscious, contact your boss or supervisor as soon as you can. You should tell them exactly what happened so they understand why you needed to leave work. Again, if you are unconscious or otherwise unable to contact your boss, it is fair to assume that a coworker or family member would do this for you.
3. Once you are free to exit the hospital, you should make sure you have appropriate paperwork from the hospital to be able to give to your boss or someone from human resources.
4. Before meeting with human resources about compensation, you should study the company literature about injuries that occur during the job. If you feel it is necessary, you may want to decide whether or not you will be hiring a representative from a law firm or private practice to come with you to your meeting with your human resources contact. At most companies, at many businesses, you are entitled to have representation there if you feel the need to have someone with you during your meeting, although it is not required. Hiring representation depends on the type of harm that was done to you and each individual company’s policy on employee injuries.
5. Meet with the human resources representative to which you are assigned. You should go into the meeting knowing whether or not your injury was caused by the negligence of the company rather than because of your own personal negligence. If you caused your injury, then you probably will not be entitled to any kind of cash for the trouble or extra vacation time. For example, if company equipment breaks and you break your arm because of it, you will most likely be given a fair amount of money from the company. However, if you are using a tool inappropriately and you break your arm, then you will probably not receive any type of cash or extra days off. You need to be able to answer any questions about what happened as honestly as possible.
It is important to remember that you are entitled to representation at your meeting with your human resources person and you should be knowledgeable about the company’s policies as far as workman’s compensation. Hopefully, if you are ever injured on the job through the company’s negligence you will be able to get the type of cash or paid time off that you are entitled to without much hassle.
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