[midnight-gamer]

My wife has complained about pain in her right hand for several weeks. She puts in long 10-12 hours shifts at her hotel job. It seems she could have a work related injury. I have asked her to file a report at work and to request a doctor visit. She is afraid of her boss retaliating if she does. My understanding is that two other employees sought hospital compensation after a alleged injury and neither received anything.
Khanittha, my wife, has a 4 year degree in hotel administration and is qualified for other positions besides labor. I would think her boss would move her to some less stressful position for awhile, but he seems to want her to keep at what she does, as she is very efficient. If there was doubt about that, she just got the employee of the month award.
She seems to think her boss would attempt to fire her if she tries to bill the company for a injury. I believe her, as she is very honest. She has confided in me about other possible abuses regarding other employees as well.
I would not involve myself in her work life, but, were she may have a injury, I think I'll have to do something about it. Maybe a anonymous call to her the hotels corporate office? How would I pursue legal action if it came to it?

[Ferretlover]

Know a lawyer? If it were me, and I knew ahead of time that I was going to have a problem with the boss, I'd take a lawyer with me to the meeting regarding the injury. And, I'd do it asap, as close to receiving the Employee of the Month award. Seems it would be difficult to make a poor performance report, in an attempt to fire her, with that award in hand.
I think that employers are going to get a lot more ruthless; after all, there are going to be a lot more unemployed people looking for work-Any work.

[kpeavey]

If the problem is a work related injury, she should not experience any form of retaliation from the employer. Injuries occur, they are dealt with. Most companies with more than a couple of dozen employees will have insurance in place to cover the expense. Even if insurance is not in place, if it is a work related injury, the company will be liable for the associated costs, not your wife. There are laws in place specifically to prevent employers from seeking retribution against an employee who is injured, giving you specific rights in that regard.

Go get it dealt with.

If an employer seeks some sort of retribution, you really have to question how much you want to work for that company.

[bobaloo]

While there's lot of laws on the books protecting injured workers, there's lots of sleazy employers who couldn't care less.

I spent a few years working as a work comp claims adjuster, believe me there's lots of companies that use use an injury as a signal to get rid of someone. Hell, it happened to my wife. She worked at a Pope & Talbot paper mill, had been there five years. She told her doc that the pain in her arm was from a bad ergo situation at work, the DOC filed the work comp claim and suddenly her position had to be eliminated (the only one in the plant that was cut).

Hotels are notoriously sleazy, expect that there's a good chance she'll lose her job. On the other hand she may well get 10's of 1,000's of dollars of free medical care to get her problem taken care of through the work comp insurer and hotel jobs are pretty easy to get due to the huge turnover. You just have to balance how bad she needs what sounds like a shitty job versus getting the medical care to get better.