Category Archives: Workplace Injury

Improper Body Mechanics While Lifting Far From Only Cause Of Nursing Injuries

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A commenter on our firm’s Facebook page stated the use of proper body mechanics will prevent nurses from getting injured. There is some truth to that statement, but there are many ways, probably not limited to this list, that nurses can get injured that aren’t related to lifting at all. Here a few I’ve encountered recently:

  1. Inadequate staffing – There is a strong correlation between staffing levels and nursing injuries. Nurses, especially CNAs, may be forced to lift or move patients on their own because of inadequate staffing or lack of equipment. Nurses may also be forced to prevent patients from suddenly falling. Use of proper lifting techniques may not be possible in such situations.
  2. Patient attacks – Studies show patient attacks on nurses are on upswing. I see a lot of this in nurses that work in mental or behavioral health.  Even they aren’t nurses, many direct care workers and human services technicians who work in mental and behavioral health are vulnerable to patient or client attack. It’s hard to argue a patient attack is the fault of the nurse
  3. Slips and falls – Slip and falls are a common type of work injury. I represented a nurse working at a dialysis clinic who injured their back when they slipped in pool of urine.
  4. Environmental and chemical exposures – In rural areas, many nursing or medical facilities are in older buildings that are vulnerable to mold and other environmental exposure. If you work in a sick building, it’s hard to argue that’s your fault.

Even if you use proper technique, repetitive heavy lifting can still cause strain and can be disabling in some instances. Nursing personnel are particularly vulnerable to these types of injuries.

I want to make one thing crystal clear: whether a nurse or any other employee is injured because of improper lifting technique THOSE INJURIES ARE STILL COVERED BY WORKERS COMPENSATION! (most of the time) In exchange for no-fault compensation, employees give up the right to sue their employer for negligence. While this might not seem like a grand bargain to a worker who was hurt to no fault of their own, that compromise is the cornerstone of workers compensation.

While the idea of no-fault compensation for work injuries is a winner in a court of law, the idea is more controversial in the court of public opinion as expressed on social media. There is an idea out there that filing a workers’ compensation claim is “milking the system” and that you certainly shouldn’t file a claim if you are at-fault for the injury. Statements that nursing injuries can be avoided, if nurses just use proper lifting techniques is consistent with that line of thinking.

A lot of hostility to those who bring work injury claims and their attorneys stems from concepts like “personal responsibility.” But when a nurse is hurt on the job because of understaffing, slipping on urine on the floor or a toxic building, the employee isn’t fully able to hold their employer responsible for the full extent of their harms even if the employer is fully responsible for the harm.

There is also the assumption that workers compensation claims are fraudulent. But would it be fair to assume that all nursing homes defraud Medicare and Medicaid just because one chain of homes in Florida defrauded the government $1 billion? No, it wouldn’t and the same is true for workers’ compensation claims. Ultimately entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits is determined in court where employees are subject to medical examination from doctors picked by insurance companies. Injured workers are also subject to written and oral questioning from insurance company lawyers. Employees usually have formidable barriers to win compensation in a disputed workers’ compensation case, so the idea that fraudulent claims run rampant is absurd.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in Workers' Compensation, Workplace Injury and tagged , , , , , , .

Experience Of New Virginia Legislator Points To Difficulty Of Multi-State Claims For Injured Workers

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Democrat Lee Carter, a democratic socialist, won an election to represent Virginia’s 50th District in the state’s House of Delegates.

Lee Carter took a bad experience with a work injury and turned it into motivation to win election to the Virginia legislature last November. But the nature of Carter’s bad experience with his work injury shows why electing true worker advocates to state legislatures may not be enough to protect injured workers.

Carter was a Virginia resident who was injured in Illinois working for a Georgia company. Carter attempted to bring his claim in Virginia but he was unable to do so because of lack of jurisdiction. Tennessee lawyer Denty Cheatham pointed out on the WILG listserv that Carter’s difficulty in bringing a claim was why national standards are needed for workers compensation.

So-called federalization is controversial in the world of workers’ compensation. Workers’ compensation is a creature of state law by what amounts to a fluke of legal history. When workers compensation laws were passed in the 1910s, the Supreme Court held that regulation of workplace safety was outside of the federal government’s ability to regulate interstate commerce but was within the so-called police power of the states.

Two decades later during the New Deal era, the Supreme Court expanded the definition of interstate commerce in the 1930s which allowed Congress to enact laws impacting the workplace such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).

OSHA was implemented in the 1970s as concerns about the adequacy of state-based workers compensation systems arose from organized labor and the civil rights movement. Part of the OSHA Act was a National Commission that called for minimum standards for workers compensation claims. Part of having standardized state laws would mean that state laws would be more uniform and multi-state claims would be easier to navigate for injured workers.

Our firm is part of WILG which is a national organization of workers’ compensation lawyers. Multi-state or multi-jurisdictional claims are probably one of the most discussed topic on the WILG listserv. Mainly lawyers discuss which state’s have the best laws for a particular case. In some circumstances workers can also bring claims in and collect benefits in multiple states. The current system works for knowledgeable lawyers, but it can fail injured workers who may not even be able to bring claim because of questions over jurisdiction.

Multi-state claims can also subvert democratic rule. A worker has some input over workers compensation laws in the state where he or she lives and votes through their respective state legislatures. A worker who is forced to bring a claim in another state does not have that influence unless they happen to be among the 6 percent of private sector employees represented by a union. But even then, it may be burdensome to bring a claim in another state.

But workers have a say over national laws through their Congressional representatives. Minimum standards and some uniformity in state workers’ compensation laws would give injured workers more say in the types of benefits they would receive if they were hurt out of their home state or hurt for an out of state employer. Minimum standards legislation would also draw more national attention to the short coming of various state workers’ compensation laws. Renewed pushes for federal standards for workers’ compensation happened in the early Obama administration and towards the end of the Obama administration. National standards for workers’ compensation legislation will probably have to wait for a change in the partisan makeup of the two elected branches of the federal government.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in Government, Legislation, Workers' Compensation, Workplace Injury and tagged , , , , , .

Discount Rate And Life Expectancy: What Most People Forget When Valuing A Workers’ Compensation Case

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What’s my case worth?

I hear that question a lot when I meet a new client. In a workers’ compensation case I tell them it depends on many factors; How much were you earning when you were hurt, what part of your body was injured, how severely you hurt, where you live, how much education you have, whether you can return back to your old job, etc.

There are a lot of variables. But in cases where an employee has some reasonable chance of being found to be permanently and totally disabled, in other words unable to find work from their work injury, there are two constants effect the value of any settlement: discount rate and life expectancy.

Discount rate is synonymous with the time value of money. In short, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future. This is important in workers compensation because if a worker is found to be permanently and totally disabled then they will be paid weekly benefit checks for the rest of their life. Under Nebraska law, that benefit check will not increase over time. The question then becomes how much will the value of that money decrease overtime. The discount rate is the expected return on investment on the money. The higher the expected return on investment, the higher the discount rate. But the higher the discount rate, the less a lump sum settlement is worth in present dollars.

An award of permanent and total disability is a form of a pension. Abnormally low interest rates in the aftermath of the financial crises have raised concerns about investment returns for pensions. The Nebraska Workers Compensation Court has used a 5 percent discount rate to value awarded permanent and total disability benefits for at least the last 12 years. But the expected rate of return on investments, as measured by interest rates of declined over the last 12 years. Lump sum payments, like workers compensation settlements, based on a 5 percent long term interest rate undervalue those payments.

For example, a 30 year US Treasury bond yields roughly 2 ¾ percent. If a 50 year-old worker earning $600 per week is found to be permanently and totally disabled, the present value of an award of permanent and total disability would be $334,000 using the 5 percent discount rate and using the court’s life expectancy tables showing a 31.4 year life expectancy. But if the court used the 30 year bond yield as the discount rate, that same award of permanent and total disability would be worth $439,000.

The issue of discount rate and case valuations isn’t widely discussed in Nebraska, but it was a contentious issue in the United Kingdom when the government cut their discount rate in personal injury claims, called the Ogden rate, by 3.25% in February 2017. The Ogden rate was increased by .75-1.75 percent in September 2017 under pressure from insurance companies.

The other variable in valuing an award of permanent and total disability is life expectancy. The Nebraska Workers Compensation Court uses a general life expectancy table to value awards of permanent and total disability that doesn’t vary by gender or nationality/race. The CDC breaks down life expectancy along those lines. Men and African-Americans have shorter life expectancies so they would actually benefit from the use of the Nebraska Workers Compensation Court life expectancy tables. Women and Hispanics tend to live longer so they would not benefit by the use of the court tables. For example, a 50 year-old Hispanic woman is expected to live 35.9 years whereas the Nebraska Workers Compensation Court just assumes a 50 year old has a 31.4 year life expectancy.  Use of the court’s life expectancy tables for a 50 year-old Hispanic woman earning $600 per week at the time of her injury could undervalue an award of permanent and total disability by about $18,000.

But workers who have a reasonable chance of being found to be permanently and totally disabled have other factors to think about when it comes to valuing any settlement of their claim. First, an insurer/employer only has to pay weekly benefits rather than a lump sum of money if a court finds a worker is permanently and totally disabled. They are free to use whatever discount rates and life expectancies they chose in valuing a claim for a settlement.  Court rules about discount rates and life expectancy only come into play when an injured worker wants to take a lump sum settlement on an awarded finding of permanent and total disability.

Secondly many employees who could potentially be awarded permanent and total disability benefits are also awarded social security disability benefits. Social security disability benefits payments can be reduced or offset by any workers compensation benefits received. An offset can have the practical effect of capping the value of any settlement based on the probability of a worker being awarded permanent and total disability benefits. 

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in Workers' Compensation, Workplace Injury and tagged , , , , .

Nebraska Fails To Increase 2018 Mileage Reimbursement Rate

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Mileage reimbursement for injured workers in Nebraska stays flat in 2018 despite increase in IRS rate

Injured workers travelling to medical appointments and vocational rehabilitation programs in Nebraska will not see an increase in reimbursement for mileage even though the Internal Revenue Service reimbursement rate will rise by $.01 per mile to $.545 per mile starting on January 1, 2018.

In a press release, the Nebraska Workers Compensation court stated the mileage re-imbursement would stay steady at $.535 per mile consistent with the reimbursement rate for Nebraska state employees. The failure to increase mileage rates will particularly impact injured workers in rural areas who need to travel to urban areas to seek treatment or get examined by specialists. The week before Christmas I travelled to the Nebraska Sand Hills region to visit a few clients. I visited a client in Ord, Nebraska who has to see a specialist in Kearney, Nebraska. The failure to raise the mileage re-imbursement rate will cost that client $1.41 per trip.

I visited another client in Loup City, Nebraska who is scheduled for an independent medical examination in Omaha in a few weeks. The failure to raise the mileage rate will cost that client $3.22 for the trip.

Nebraska’s refusal to raise the mileage reimbursement rate for state employees to match the IRS rate is consistent with efforts by the Ricketts administration to reduce state employment costs by a hiring freeze for state employees and end cost of living increases for non-unionized state employees.

The Nebraska Workers Compensation Court also announced the maximum benefit rate will increase from $817 per week to $831 per week. Unlike the mileage rate, the maximum benefit rate is set by statute in Nebraska. In Nebraska we take for granted that the maximum benefit rate will generally increase over time. But that isn’t the case in every state. In 2017 a judge in Alabama ruled that their state’s workers compensation system was unconstitutional because it had not increased the maximum benefit in nearly 30 years.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in employment law, Workers' Compensation, Workplace Injury and tagged , , .

I’M A 10!!!!

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This article will not be discussing Bo Derek’s memorable jog down a beach in that memorable movie of the same name.  Instead it discusses the reliability of pain scales in the context of injury cases, a much less interesting topic!

According to the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, “Though the accuracy of the 5th vital sign for pain assessment is moderate, it is much lower in practice than under ideal research circumstances. Uniquely, we found that nurses may not always use the 0 to 10 scale to properly quantify pain levels and that informal screening practice leads to underestimation. Efforts to improve routine pain management can confidently use NRS, but provider training, education, and monitoring in screening techniques are needed, as are efforts to link the 5th vital sign to clinician action for better pain managementReading between the lines, this organization found nurses and doctors need more education in order for pain scales to be reliably used.

Typically, patients are asked to rate their pain from 0-10.  However, how those numbers are described seems to vary widely.  One clinician may describe a “10” as the worst pain imaginable, while another may describe it as the worst pain you have ever felt.  Of course, that can result in very different ratings depending on one’s history of prior injury and pain tolerance.  The results may be further complicated by cultural distortions, difficulties in interpretation, psychological factors including depression, education level which could impact understanding and an individuals pain tolerance in general.   Additionally, many injured people may generally feel that they must exaggerate their symptoms in order to be believed or to get the necessary medical treatment they require.  It’s important for us to emphasize to our injured clients that exaggerating symptoms is never a good idea and could result in some very real credibility consequences with the Court, employer and medical professionals.  On a similar note, it’s not uncommon to have some clients underestimate the symptoms they experience, and this also can result in difficulties related to being assigned appropriate work restrictions, getting necessary medical treatment and giving a full picture of the injury itself.

It’s not uncommon in trial for defense attorneys to make light of what they characterize as “exaggerated” pain ratings of 9 or 10.  Additionally, if you are arguing that a condition has gotten worse, it’s difficult to do so when 9 or 10 pain ratings have been given previously.  One colleague recently recounted an exchange during trial which is illustrative.  A client was discussing non-operative back pain to a Judge and had told him his pain was a 10.  When told to imagine Jesus Christ on the cross as the last spear thrust that ended his life as a “10”, and to compare his pain to that the client noted again his non-operable back pain was a “10”.  One can imagine how this client’s credibility may have been negatively impacted by this statement.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in Workers' Compensation, Workplace Injury and tagged , , .

Failure to Provide Workers’ Compensation for Employees is a Crime

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I saw a recent newspaper story from New Jersey telling an employer was found guilty of a crime for failing to provide workers compensation benefits for the employees of his tree trimming service.

I can’t recall the last time I read of such a conviction, although virtually every state makes failing to provide workers compensation a crime and wide spread employer evasion by labeling workers as independent contractor rather than employees. Recent studies find misclassification to occur a 30% rate. The costs of misclassification are in the hundreds of billions with workers being denied treatment and income replacement, government losing withholding taxes, unemployment benefit taxes and lawful employers paying higher insurance premiums for workers compensation and healthcare to name a few costs.

I run into these scoff law employers all too frequently. If more prosecutors treated them as the criminals, they are perhaps more working people would be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in Misclassification, Workers' Compensation, Workplace Injury and tagged .

Workers Compensation for the Work Camper

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The Washington Post ran a feature story about “Work Campers” – senior citizens who live in campers and travel around for temporary jobs. The story noted that many, if not most, work campers were forced into the lifestyle by inadequate retirement savings and Social Security retirement benefits that have lost 30 percent of their purchasing power since 2000. The story also noted that the number of senior citizens working has increased from 4 million to 9 million during that same time period.

The idea of a growing number of senior citizens essentially acting as migrant laborers strikes many as odd and even dystopian. But work campers will present interesting challenges to the workers compensation system.  Though some studies show that older workers are less likely to get hurt on the job, this finding is attributed to older workers having more experience on the job. Since work campers tend to hop from temporary job to temporary job, their chances of injury could increase as temporary workers are more likely to get hurt.

This growing development in the workforce raises many issues for work campers who are hurt on the job because workers compensation laws are state specific so benefits and eligibility for benefits vary from state to state.

Here are some questions that will face work campers when they are injured on the job.

Which states and jurisdictions can you collect benefits?

Employees may be eligible to claim benefits in the state where they are injured, their state of permanent residence, the state their employer is based or the state they were hired. Employees may also be able to claim benefits in multiple states. Employees may also be able to bring claims under the Jones Act or Longshore Act if they were hurt on a ship or a navigable body of water. It helps to get advice from a qualified workers’ compensation lawyer as the decision as to where an employee should claim benefits should be driven by where they have the best chances of recovery.

Which states limit permanent benefits for older workers?

Iowa recently limited workers over the age of 67 from receiving permanent disability benefits for more than 150 weeks. A work camper who was covered under Iowa law and seriously injured could only receive 2 ½ years of benefits.

What is the law on pre-existing conditions?

Many elderly workers have preexisting conditions. In some states those preexisting conditions may impair the ability of an injured work camper to collect benefits. In Missouri employees need to show an injury is a “prevailing factor” in the disability whereas in Nebraska employees merely show the work injury was a “contributing factor” to the disability. In other words, it would be more difficult for a work camper to collect benefits in Missouri for the aggravation of an old injury than it would be in Nebraska.

How do you determine earnings?

Disability benefits are based on earnings or what is called average weekly wage.  The work campers profiled in the Washington Post were fairly low wage employees. However some work camping contracts include provisions for benefits like lodging that have a real monetary value. In some states, like Nebraska, those non-cash benefits can be included in the average weekly wage. Short term work assignments also present difficulties in determining average weekly wage because they might not accurately reflect an employee’s actual earning capacity. There could also be questions as to whether employment is seasonal or weather dependent which could also alter the average weekly wage.

Again, calculations of earnings can vary state by state, so work campers injured on the job should contact a member of WILG who specialize in workers compensation and regularly communicate with workers compensation specialists in other states.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in Workers' Compensation, Workplace Injury and tagged , , , , , , .

Do Employees’ Forced Smiles At Stores Cause Mental Distress?

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Most Nebraskans and Iowans can probably sing a jingle from a regional grocery chain that promises “a helpful smile in every aisle.” But helpful smiles may have a hidden cost for employees.

A summary of 95 medical studies showed that forced cheerfulness by employees lead to psychosomatic issues like trouble sleeping, headaches and chest pain as well as decreased job satisfaction. This so-called emotional labor has also been linked to aggression in the workplace.

Retail and service industry employees are usually required to be cheerful to encourage customers to return. These pressures are likely becoming more acute as certain sectors of retail employment have declined and online giant – and burgeoning monopoly – Amazon has barged into the grocery business with their acquisition of Whole Foods.

Unfortunately, U.S. employment laws are not equipped to deal with the day-to-day mental strains placed on retail workers. Workers compensation laws generally do not compensate purely mental injuries. Workplace bullying or harassment is only legally actionable if the harassment is severe or pervasive and motivated by an unlawful factor like race, religion, nationality, sex, disability, etc. 

But employees have the power to work together, even if they aren’t in a union, to address these conditions through protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act. Recently a group of employees at a Target in rural Virginia banded together to help fire a manager who had been sexually harassing employees. Granted sexual harassment may be different than forcing an employee to be cheerful when dealing with the public, but by working together employees can address unreasonable rules and requirements by an employer.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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