Although Georgia’s workers’ compensation system is supposed to foster an environment where legitimately injured workers can get needed treatment and then return to work, the reality is much different. It has been my experience that workers’ compensation practice is just about as adversarial as divorce practice. Often justice and fair play take a back seat to “winning” and efforts by employers insurance companies to avoid paying benefits.
Case in point. This week I received the following email from a young woman who works at a factory in north Georgia:
Where I work I have been told that carpel tunnel is not recognized as a workman’s comp injury if I wasn’t having problems with numbness before. Is this correct?
The short answer is “no, this is not correct.” Repetitive motion injury (often resulting in a diagnosis of carpel tunnel syndrome) is a very common work injury, especially for factory workers performing manual labor with their hands.
Any employer who tells an employee that “carpel tunnel is not recognized as a workers’ comp. injury” is either very misinformed or downright dishonest. [Read more…] about Employee Gets Bad Information About Legitimate Job Injury