Employee Injury

LindaS

I have a long-term employee who contacted us yesterday to inform us that he would not be in to work as he "tweaked" his back the night before moving some wire and that he felt it should be covered under his FMLA. Because we are in WI exacerbation of a pre-existing condition can sometimes be covered under WC PLUS he stated that he tweaked it here so I am requiring him to go to the clinic to be looked at, etc.

One of the things with this EE is that there is a long-standing mode of thought that this guy smokes marijuana (he has been seen doing it outside of work).

So anway I call the EE and inform him of the WC situation and that he must go to the walk-in to be examined and take the required drug test. He then informs me that he has just taken a vicoden and two muscle relaxers so he cannot drive and, of couse, nobody is around to drive him and nobody will be around for the remainder of the evening. I then tell him the lab opens at 7:00am and that he needs to go in "right away" in the AM.

At 10:15am I contact the hospital only to find out that he has yet to be seen so I call him and he states that he will be in "as soon as he drinks enough water" for the drug test. I remind him that he was instructed to be in immediately in the AM, to which he disagrees, and then informs me that he will be leaving in approx. 30 minutes.

At this point I do not know whether discipline is necessary or what??? Do I think he is putting the testing off, yes, but what can I do???

POTATO

Do you have a policy regarding w/c accident reporting and if so did EE follow policy as written and are there any disciplinary steps if not followed? I would inform my w/c carrier ASAP of the situation including what appears to be resistance to taking required testing and do a full investigation of accident/injury. For us once EE mentions w/c claim, not much I can do unless fraud was committed except follow disciplinary steps about reporting. Good Luck

stilldazed

Also check your state's drug testing guidelines. In Florida it's part of w/c legislation. If your drug testing policy is complete and the legislation allows, this fella could be moving very closely to a reasonable suspicion situation, which would offer you the opportunity to randomly test him for a period of time. The caveat, be very careful and stay within the guidelines. Otherwise, you'll be pushing the envelop on slander, and you can bet that if this fella is savvy enough to think up fool proof reasons to delay his test, he will also be aware of how far you can push him.

best wishes.