There were cases where they passed folk fit for work who died the same week. It was shameful. I read they did not save any money at all, any savings were outweighed by the cost of the appeal process, which most folk won.
In my early twenties, another employee I was working with fucked up, and I got hurt in an industrial accident
I was off for two weeks, when WCB (Workers compensation board) sent me a letter, saying I had an appointment with a doctor (not my own GP) and if I didn't show up for the examination, I'd be cut off
I went for the test and was told I had pulled a muscle in my back and they signed me fit to go back to work
I hobbled in for my shift at 6 AM and after lifting a 70 Lb box, I collapsed, and was rushed by ambulance to hospital
The scan showed I had a slipped disc, which was pressing on the Sciatic nerve
I was in 3 different hospitals and was in traction hooked up to a medieval contraption for a moth, it was agony
I got back to work almost a year later, and I suffer to this day from Sciatica
When my own doctor found out, he called the WCB and asked for the guy who had threatened to deny my claim
My doctor was a wee guy from Dublin and I loved when he told the cunt "Where did you get your medical degree from? You don't have one...oh I see, well my patient will not be going back until I give him the OK..."
He even phoned the WCB's doctor who had examined me, and gave him a right going over
These Govt systems are set up not to help the employees, but to keep the conveyor belt of commerce going, with replacements and not pay out the insurance money we've all paid into, and are entitled to
I despise the bastards who treat it, as if it's their money you're entitled to
You have to be a special kind of evil bastard to do that to hard working people
HH