But something which is often overlooked is the mental health implications of accidents suffered at work. These can be much more serious than the burden of recovering from a physical injury.
Thomas Corr was a maintenance engineer working to repair a car panel machine. As he was bent down examining the fault, the machine suddenly picked up a car panel and swung it at his head.
Luckily, Mr Corr ducked instinctively and narrowly avoided being decapitated by the incident. However, he did receive a heavy blow to the head and had his right ear severed by the unpredictable machine.
While his ear healed in time and ceased to cause Mr Corr any pain, he began to suffer from tinnitus and severe migraines as a result of his injury.
The tinnitus and debilitating headaches began to have an effect on his mental state as he slowly succumbed to depression in the years following the accident.
Eventually, six years after the accident, unable to take it any longer, Mr Corr committed suicide by jumping from the top a multi storey car park.
The deterioration of his mental health was brought on by his accident at work, which consequently led to his death.
After a lengthy court battle, Mr Corr’s window was awarded compensation as his Mr Corr’s employer was deemed ultimately responsible for his death, despite him committing suicide so long after the incident.
The employer had admitted that Mr Corr’s depression was a reasonably forseeable consequence of the incident.
Carys is an author of several articles pertaining to No Win No Fee, Compensation Claims, Personal Injury Claims and other legal articles.
Source: http://www.articleheaven.com/article_553138_18.html
The federal anti-discrimination law called the Equal Employment Opportunity law covers all private employers, state and local governments, and educational institutions, which employ 15 or more individuals.
Law prohibits discrimination in the following practices:
• Hiring and firing of employees
• Compensation, assignment and classification of employees
• Transfer, promotion, layoff, or recall
• Job advertisements
• Recruitment and testing
• Use of company facilities
• Training and apprenticeship programs
• Fringe benefits
• Pay, retirement plans, disability leave
• Other employment terms and conditions
Under the law, other illegal discriminatory practices also include:
• Harassment
• Retaliation
• Employment decisions based on stereotypes or assumptions about the abilities, traits, or performance of individuals of a certain sex, race, age, religion, disability, or ethnic group
• Denial of employment opportunities to a person because of marriage or association with an individual of a particular race, religion, national origin, or an individual with a disability
• Discrimination because of participation in schools or places of worship associated with a particular racial, ethnic, or religious group.
How to File a Charge
Here are initial steps in filing a discrimination charge:
• You can file a charge by mail or in person. Contact the nearest EOC office to inquire on detailed procedure of filing a case.
• If you need an interpreter, you need to call the EOC local office to make a special accommodation.
• Consult the fact sheet about complaint processing
When filing a discrimination charge, the following information is required:
1. the complainant’s name, address and contact number
2. the name, address, and contact number of the respondent employer or agency
3. a brief description of the violations
4. the date of the alleged violations
When to File a Case
A complainant may file a lawsuit within 90 days after receiving a notice of the “right to sue” from the EEOC. The notice of the “right to sue” may be requested by the charging party 180 days from the filing of the complaint. A lawsuit must be filed within two years (three years for intentional violations) of the discriminatory act.
What Remedies Are Available When Discrimination Is Found
When discrimination is found, whether caused by intentional acts or certain employment practices, some remedies or relief are available which may include:
• back pay
• hiring
• promotion
• reinstatement
• front pay
• reasonable accommodation
• other condition or action that will restore certain privileges
Other relief may also include payment of:
• attorney’s fees
• expert witness’ fees
• court costs
Compensatory and punitive damages may also be obtainable under the enforced laws of the EOOC. When discrimination is found, compensatory damages may be available for actual monetary losses, for future monetary losses, and for mental anguish and inconvenience. If an employer acted with malice or recklessness, punitive damages may be imposed. However, punitive damages do not apply against federal, state or local governments.
Therefore, if you feel aggrieved and you believe your employment rights have been prejudiced, you can find relief by seeking the protection of the law.
You may always find refuge from our Expert Los Angeles Attorneys. Just search our website and find the top and most favorable solutions for your employment discrimination case.
Before becoming an online writer, Manuel worked as a journalist, a newspaper columnist, a scriptwriter, a fiction writer, a magazine editor, and a tutor. He acquired his legal background as a Senate legislative officer and later on, as a researcher and paralegal staff in various law offices. Someday he hoped to go back and devote more time to writing fiction, which is his first passion.
Disability payments from private sources, such as private pension or insurance benefits, do not affect one’s social security disability benefits.
But workers’ compensation and other public disability benefits may reduce your social security benefits. Other public disability payments that may affect your Social Security benefit are those paid by a federal, state or local government and are for disabling medical conditions that are not job-related.
Some of these are civil service disability benefits, military disability benefits, state temporary disability benefits and state or local government retirement benefits that are all based on disability.
Some public benefits do not affect or reduce your social security disability benefits.
They are:
• Veterans Administration benefits
• State and local government benefits, if Social Security taxes were deducted from your earnings
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
On the other hand, injured workers are also entitled to certain benefits under the workers’ compensation law. Here are the types of workers disability compensation:
• Temporary Total Disability – This benefit is payable when the injured worker is unable to work during a period when he/she is under active medical care and has not yet reached what is called “maximum medical improvement”.
In most states, compensation is paid at two-thirds of the employee’s average weekly wage, not to exceed statutory weekly maximums above which no worker is entitled to compensation. It is common worker’s temporary total disability weekly benefit to be capped by these statutory compensation limits.
• Temporary Partial Disability – A worker may be eligible for temporary partial disability compensation when he or she is able to do some work but is still recuperating from the effects of the injury, and is, thus, temporarily limited in the amount or type of work which can be performed compared to the pre-injury work.
• Permanent Partial Disability – Compensation is awarded for certain types of permanent conditions which do not cause the worker to be totally unable to work.
• Permanent Total Disability – In order to receive this type of compensation, the employee must prove that he is unable to return to work in any capacity, and that this is a permanent problem.
On the other hand, there are rulings in many states to the effect that a worker, who can perform only occasional, sporadic or undependable work, may still be deemed to be permanently totally disabled. Frequently, states’ workers compensation law permits lawyers to offer evidence of a workers age, education, training and experience in seeking to prove that the worker is incapable of substantial gainful employment.
• Disfigurement/Mutilation – A states’ workers compensation law may permit the employee to be compensated for disfigurement or scarring, frequently in the absence of any actual impairment, and sometimes in addition to actual impairment.
Disabled workers and employees are entitled to a number of benefits under the law. To know more information about how these benefits may be applicable to you as a disabled employee, you need to consult a disability compensation lawyer who is knowledgeable with these issues.
Log on to our disability compensation lawyers’ website. Our professional lawyers and legal staff are capable of providing expert assistance in your Social Security Disability problems.