hunnyoh
09-14-2006, 05:52 PM
"Joe" was training a new employee. He was not a "trainer" by company policy (they have specific training that all trainers have to have and tests they have to pass). There was noone (including trainers) left in his department who knew enough about all the machinery or had enough experience on it to train anyone. His supervisor had him train others on a regular basis even though she was well aware of his "non-trainer" status. He had requested to be made a trainer and had been denied. While training the new employee, he had to lean back and point into a machine to show the trainee how jams in that machine are cleared manually. The department manuals at this company are very specific and so is the training on the machines. During the process of breaking the jam, Joe's arm was hit by a box traveling down the conveyor immediately after the jam broke. This forced his hand into the machine. His had was pulled into the machine and crushed though miraculously no bones were broken. The company sent him to the hospital in a taxi. A family member met him there and drove him back to his workplace after release from the ER. He had been told that the incident report had to be completed ASAP. He was restricted by the ER physician from driving and from any use of the injured hand until follow-up by a family physician. He was allowed to return to work the following day on light duty/restriction. He returned to work that night to fill out the report. It was shortly after 1a.m. His supervisor asked if he would be staying to finish his shift which ended at 2a.m. He declined to stay as he still had a lot of pain and swelling. He visited the Workers Comp physician a few days later who changed the restrictions somewhat but still considered him "light-duty" for a week and then released him to full duty. As soon as he returned to regular duty, Joe was told by his supervisor that because of past absenses (Which had never been discussed) he was being placed on corrective action because he did not stay at work the night he was released from the ER (technically he was there after midnight which was the next day). Further, he was placed on corrective action for unsafe work practices. The Maintenance Staff all agreed that he was breaking that jam correctly. It was leaning back while doing it to show the trainee that led to the injury as he could not move out of the way quickly enough. This company has a policy that says an employee cannot be on 2 types of corrective action at the same time. He was immediately terminated. He doesn't want to work for them now. He would like for them to compensate him while he looks for work. (He was already out looking the day after he was fired.) This is not someone who will be lazy while they pay him. Does what his company did seem wrong enough for him to bother pursuing this?