Do you think that this company isn't looking for innovative ways to eliminate Union employees? I have never, in 24 years, had an unsatisfactory monthly evaluation. I have numerous accommodations from upper management and I am one of maybe a dozen Licensed Telephony Journeymen in the entire company. A year ago, I was hit by a motorist that ran a stop sign while on company time, in a company vehicle, by no fault of my own. I followed every medical advisement and worked for over 300 days on light duty fulfilling every work request of the company. The company, not a medical professional, deemed my restrictions as permanent and skipped the required maximum medical improvement step and placed me on an 80 day job search rather than STD. The HR rep claimed that the clock would continue unless I found a job in the company that would accept their permanent restriction designation that includes no driving, lift 5lbs, & no repetetive motion. at the end of the 80 day clock I would receive 18 weeks of transitional pay and have no option of STD or LTD. Sedgwick has zero interest in seeing medical improvement, they are only interested in managing costs through their efforts to slow treatment. In nearly a year since the accident, I have still not seen the Surgeon, only his PA once. I had to demand to be scheduled for surgery prior to even seeing the surgeon or hearing his recommendations. If I get surgery prior to the 80 day clock expiration it will force STD (a claim that HR denies) I am 1 year from my pension going up 325% as I will hit the magical 75 number (age+service) I cannot help but wonder if I am being targeted for this fact alone. My WC Dr. is appalled by the illegal antics of this company and my Labor Attorney says that this is illegal as well. I believe that I will receive compensation through litigation if I am dismissed but I wanted to see if anyone else has seen this scenario play out?
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Typical
To fight Sedgewick you need a Doctor who pushes back firstly, not real easy these days I know but they are out there. Secondly when Sedgewick calls and asks your return to work or says by their metrics you should be back at work I have said two things.
Are you my Doctor ? Have you seen and treated me? Of course they say no but we have a staff of consultants blah blah blah.
I also say that since I am not a medical professional and my Doctor recommends I proceed with this treatment you should talk to them for your answer, they default back to their answer, I then say put it in writing and take liability for my possible reinjury, they Balk immediately. I say my doctor says I can make a full recovery following his guidance and can perform my job functions normally if allowed to finish their rehab process. What guarantees do you have ?
This has shut them down and up and they ask when my next update is going to be and Doctors appointment, I do it and fax them my paperwork on progress and just keep everything for proof in the event they didn't get the fax they say or somehow didn't get the information. Keep the fax confirmation as well, it is date stamped and time and has the fax number you sent on it as well and the from.
The documentation and records are your friend, time consuming maybe and tedious but well worth the effort.
With my time with the company, I would receive 39 weeks of STD and then transition to LTD. This would be able to stretch me to the magic 75 which may or may not have anything to do with the calculation but the pension estimator increases my payout on my 25th anniversary by 325% on both the company and union pension calculators.
The company partnered with CWA to give a 3 year training period to a few individuals in the licensed telephony journeymen program whereby they would get exposure to most facets of the telephone company and would be tested after each segment with a pass or be terminated agreement. Eventually, the company decided this was too expensive and everyone was faced with finishing the coursework and testing out or becoming net techs.
What the heck is a licensed telephony journeyman.
How long is short term disability?
I had a similar problem with 20 years of service. After an injury I was on STD and had to jump through hoops with Sedwick, sometimes several times a week. after 2-3 months my crew was being eliminated and they put me on a job search or I could take a VSPP. I just took the VSPP because I knew I would be screwed if I tried to stay. Good luck to you, Sedwick would claim your OK to return to work even if you passed away last week.
Sedgewick is hired by the company to work FOR the company, they have two jobs to limit cost and liability. They are basically the insurance company to protect the company from paying out to handle injuries to employees and make sure they can cut ties. Lawsuit can win cases but as you are seeing they internal aspect is very hard to navigate, this is on purpose like everything else.
We were just told in a meeting that safety is on us, use your cell phone if you get hurt, I hope those that have medical issues or get hurt can use that cell phone before they pass out or are in a signal area. Since going to T-Mobile from Verizon you need to be lucky.
Again this is a policy to limit their liability if you don't challenge it legally. Use to be a Manager was suppose to check your time sheets and verify you were making entries if you were working alone and call and check if you had not made one in a specified window. Now it's on us, they said you should call or text each other during the day to make sure we are each ok.
Really it is saying the management wants nothing to do with us, if we get hurt, die or something else they want to make sure they have distanced from us. Well except when it comes to making metrics, they call really fast if something looks like it will fall off and they may not get their bonuses.
Lawyer up!
You may want to check into that magic 75 number. We were told that means nothing anymore.
I have not But it does not surprise me at all, since LEVEL 3 took over it is clear that they have no regard for anything. They do not care about lawsuits either, it is just part of their normal operating cost. The only reason you were not laid off a long time ago is because of your expertise which they need until they decide they don't need.