The NALC will assist injured members with their on-the-job injuries. There are many things that injured carriers should know when navigating through this process. Here, we will give you a brief overview of some of the most common issues and what to do about them.
The first thing is that when you report an injury Management will likely ask you to give them a write up of what happened. This is only a part of their own internal reporting process, and it is not the same thing as filing a claim with the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). It’s very important to understand that you have not filed a claim just because you gave your supervisor or manager a description of your injury. It’s not uncommon for carriers to believe that they have filed a claim in this situation only to be surprised when they still receive bills from their medical provider. To file a claim go to ecomp.dol.gov. You’ll need to have an account created and there’s a button to do that. If you had a traumatic injury (one that happened on one shift) then file a CA-1. NALC.org has a webpage called injured on the job with a document on how to file a CA-1 in ecomp. If you have an injury that happened over time, I recommend reaching out to us for help as these claims are more complicated. If you need help through this process, feel free to give the branch a call at 612-781-9849. We can schedule you for an appointment to come in and get your claim filed.
If you suffer an injury and must leave work early there is a rule that says that you still get paid for whatever you were scheduled for that day if you have to seek medical treatment. Most of the time Management will not put you in for that and we should demand that they do this and file a grievance if they don’t.
To take care of your medical bills Management is required by federal law to provide you with a CA-16 Authorization for Examination and/or Treatment. They have to do this within four hours of reporting the injury. If they give you a properly filled out CA-16 you can then hand it to your medical provider, and the bills will be taken care of. Unfortunately, they rarely do this, instead they will give you a CA-16 that is expired, or that isn’t filled out. If it isn’t filled out it’s of no use to anyone. Stewards, please follow up on this and file grievances on this issue. We have gotten money out of Management for their failures on this. Another way to get your bills paid is to give your provider your OWCP case number and date of injury, oftentimes that’s all the information they need to get the bills processed.
Another benefit for workers that have a traumatic injury is the right to Continuation of Pay (COP). This is essentially injury administrative leave that does not come out of your own leave balance. It can be paid for up to 45 days after an injury, although the first three days will be your own leave, unless you’re out for more than two weeks. Management should put you in for this right away after a traumatic injury, although we have to provide them with medical documentation that shows we can’t work during this
time. Again, this is often a fight with Management. Management may lie to you and say that they can’t give you COP until you go to the doctor, but this is false. We just have to give them the medical within 10 days of the claim.
Many carriers have issues with the process and so it is very important to stay on top of things. We can help you through this. The sooner you let us know there’s a problem the easier it is to fix.