Workplace accident cases seem to have a language that is all their own. The terms that are used in workplace accident cases often define the outcomes of those cases. Anyone who has gotten hurt at work is likely to find themselves immersed in a sea of unfamiliar words that will be used to determine whether they receive compensation for their injuries and how much compensation they will get.
One recent workplace injury case in Mississippi sheds some light on what it means to be employable. The Mississippi Court of Appeals’ decision in Hathorn v. ESCO Corp., No. 2015-WC-01528-COA (Miss. Ct. App. 11/15/16) tells us that there is a difference between being unable to find a job and being unemployable.
The case involves a man who hurt his hand when he was operating a grinder at a facility that makes steel parts for mining equipment. His injury was deemed compensable, and he was eventually able to return to work with medical restrictions. His doctor told him not to use a grinder or lift more than fifty pounds, so he did janitorial and maintenance tasks, and he ran errands. He worked in this way for over a year, and one day he was asked to operate a forklift, so he did. That evening, his hand swelled up dramatically, and he went to see his doctor. The doctor examined his hand and told him not to do any more work involving forklifts.
A couple of weeks after the man had been told by his doctor to refrain from operating forklifts, his employer asked him to use one again. The man asked whether someone else could do it because he could not, and told his superiors that he was medically unable to operate the forklift. He was placed on leave and given a few days to obtain a note from the doctor to certify that he was medically unable to operate the forklift. When he did not produce the note within the prescribed amount of time, he was fired for insubordination.
As a result, the man looked for work, but he was unable to find a job. The fact that he had been working for over a year, taken together with the fact that he was able to perform a range of different tasks while he was working show that he can do at least some types of work. While this man may not be as employable as a person who has no medical restrictions on the types of work that they can do, the man’s injury does not make him unemployable. It also does not seem as though the man exhausted all of the possibilities during his job search – he admitted that he did not look for security, maintenance, or housekeeping jobs, even though he has the skills and the physical abilities to perform at least some jobs in those fields.
Barrett Law PLLC: Representing Workplace Accident Victims Across Mississippi
If you got hurt on the job, it is important that you know that you do not have to learn and apply the language of worker’s compensation all on your own. The Mississippi Workplace Accident Attorneys at Barrett Law PLLC are here to guide you through the worker’s compensation claims process while you work on recovering from your injury. Please call us today, at 1 (601) 790-1505 to schedule a consultation.
