What To Do If You Get Injured At Work

In Canada, most injured workers are covered by WSIA (Workplace Safety Insurance board). Still, not every worker enjoys such coverage. There are some exceptions.

Workers that are not covered:

• Anyone working in an industry that WSIA is not in
• Any temporary worker
• A new employee that has not yet become eligible for the WSIA benefits

There are situations that give an injured employee in Canada the right to sue his or her employer. These include employee’s injuries resulted from use of defective machinery, a defective building or a defective process. That might include a procedure for obtaining the necessary equipment. For instance, someone might get injured while using or on the way to the place where certain pieces of equipment got stored. Additionally, the instances include employee’s injuries caused by the employer’s negligence or one worker’s injuries caused by another worker’s negligence.

Actions to take if injured on the job:

Notify your supervisor.

Get medical attention.

Get name of examining physician. Do not be afraid to contact same physician, if some possible effect of injury appears to have been overlooked. Ask about getting the opinion of a specialist, if that seems called for.

If arrangements have been made for you to see a specialist, be sure to follow the specialist’s instructions. If you continue to see the same doctor, follow that doctor’s instructions.

Be sure that your employer submits the necessary paperwork or hire the services of an Injury Lawyer in Barrie. Get a copy of the paperwork. Learn what information your doctor has provided to your employer. If there has been a miscommunication, consider getting a lawyer at this point. Otherwise, wait to see if employer offers some form of assistance; if none offered, contact a lawyer.

Actions by employer that can weaken a worker’s personal injury claim:

Setting aside time each day for workers to complete a series of stretching exercises. This lowers the chance that any one of them might have a pulled muscle or a strained back. It can even reduce the chances for a carpal tunnel injury.

Providing employees with a way to offer suggestions, regarding changes that might improve the safety of some section of the company or business. This could be something as simple as a suggestion box.

Creating a contest, in which employees compete with each other to provide the right answer to a series of safety-related questions. Offer a prize to the department or employee with the highest score.

Subscribe to magazine that focuses on safety in the workplace. Encourage employees to read it. If magazine sponsors a contest, encourage workers to enter it. If any worker wins contest, arrange for submission to publication of article about that same winner.

Such actions demonstrate an employer’s eagerness to keep the workplace safe, and to emphasize importance of safety issues.