Rationale behind Safety: Case for Recordkeeping and Workers’ Compensation

Rationale behind Safety: Case for Recordkeeping and Workers’ Compensation

Part One: Case for Recordkeeping

In the working environment, ethical guidelines and rules play an indispensable role in the achievement of a good and healthy environment for the employees. Safety and health experts have an ethical duty of promoting safety in the working environment. However, past periods have indicated that a gap exists between making and executing ethical choices. This purports the significance of labor unions that are instituted to ensure that workers’ safety and compensation at work is strictly upheld (Gohsman, 2008). In the US, the organization Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) serves in the labor department towards enhancement of safety and health of workers. For this section, we shall review the given case to determine whether the employee’s case is ‘recordable’.

To determine whether a case is ‘recordable’, the OSHA Recordkeeping 29 CFR 1904 principle is applied (Schneid, 2008). First, the illness must be determined as to whether it is associated with work. Secondly, the case has to be new in that it is the first time that the employee has been faced with the given illness. In addition to this, if a worker was suffering from a disease that is treated and cured only to recur at a different period, then it will be treated as a new case. Once this has been established, the illness can be recorded if it amounts to death, sick offs, controlled duties, job reassignment and shifting, worker unconsciousness and any severe injury or illness necessitating medical attention other than first aid. With reference to the presented situation, the case is recordable.

The employee got the back injury while at work as he pushing a trash cart. The injury occurred before the worker signed out on the given Thursday. With the given information, the case can be treated as a new one since it is not a recursive ailment. The tissue injury is severe as it leads to work restrictions where the worker is barred from lifting, pushing or pulling more than twenty pounds for a period of three weeks. In addition to this, each of the three weeks is to be accompanied by a three-day physical therapy, which keeps the worker-off work until the sessions end. Upon evaluation, the worker is given an official sick off on Monday and prescribed drugs. Therefore, the case requires to be recorded in the OSHA’s Form 300 known as a log of work related injuries and compensations.

Part Two: Case for Worker’s Compensation

Workers’ compensation in the Indiana State is awarded to employees that are injured while performing their job duties. The compensation package may take the form of medical cover and therapy of income incentives mostly given to dependants upon the demise of a worker. Each employee is covered by the arrangement from the first day he/she starts working for a given institution. A compensation claim can only be forwarded within thirty days prior to the accident otherwise it expires. When an employee stays for seven days without coming to work, they are warranted a weekly income, which they can only start receiving on the twenty-first day after the accident. The employer should provide the physician and if the patient is not satisfied with the provided medical officer, they can change to another one. If the worker is able to attend the allocated duties yet have to attend therapeutic appointments, they are to be paid in full for the working day (Anderson, 1999).

With reference to the given situation, the worker is liable for compensation with regard to the hospital charges, the doctor and nurse consultation and treatment fees, medicine charges and the compensation award. Having in mind that the patient has to attend physical therapy three times a week for a period of three weeks, the worker is also liable for compensation in terms of wages during the time that he has to spend in consultation.

References

Anderson, J. M. (1999). State-by-state Laws and Regulations on Workers’ Compensation Managed Care. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Gohsman, R. (2008). Medical Assisting Made Incredibly Easy: Law and Ethics. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Schneid, T. D. (2008). Corporate Safety Compliance: OSHA, Ethics, and the Law. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.