It’s a worry when you get a painful back complaint while working. Should you take time off work to find out what’s wrong? If you do, can you afford to not go to work if the advice is to stay at home and allow the back to recover? What if surgery is needed? Fortunately, nearly every employer bar a few, is required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This is to ensure the employer is not sued by an employee if a workplace injury or illness develops. The insurance covers the employee for medical costs and some, but not all, lost earnings. You can get all the details from an experienced workers’ comp. attorney. A workers' compensation attorney can help you determine if you might be eligible for a workers' compensation claim against Home Depot if you were injured while on the job. Company Profile for the Home Depot Inc. The Home Depot is a very well known chain of home improvement and hardware stores. The company has been in existence since 1979 and has since grown to be America’s largest chain of stores selling the sort of products that it does. Its main competitor is Lowe’s, but Lowe’s is not quite as large in size for revenue or workforce as the Home Depot. Home Depot’s main headquarters are currently in Atlanta, Georgia. There are stores located right across the U.S. in every single continental state as well as Canada, Mexico, Guam and Puerto Rico. There were nearly 400,000 people working for the Home Depot in 2016. Can You Go Back to Work if You Have a Bad Back? Much of the time having a “bad back” is not really a medical problem and can be solved by having a warm shower, a massage or plenty of rest. However, there are also more serious back problems that can develop when a store based employee has to spend much of the working day on his or her feet or does a lot of heavy lifting. Training and better equipment can alleviate some back problems, but sometimes this is lacking. Slipped discs, herniated discs and pinched nerves are all quite serious and can cause chronic back pain. It is not possible for these problems to recover without some medical treatment and days or weeks of rest. An early return to work might mean a slower recovery or even make the condition worse. Calculating Compensation for a Bad Back A Home Depot sales assistant might earn around $9 an hour over a 40 hour working week. If the back problem takes three weeks for sufficient recovery so that the doctor advises that the employee is able to return to work, then the compensation claim would be $9 x 40 x 3 x 0.67, assuming that the wage component of a claim is paid at two thirds of the normal wage, a percentage which seems to be the par for most states. For this hypothetical bad back claim, the total wage component would be worth $720. Most likely the medical component (doctor’s visits, hospital treatment, analysis, drugs and transport) would be significantly higher. It is important to make sure every medical document and receipt is carefully put aside in case there is a dispute over the claim. Why You Should Talk to a Workers' Comp Attorney You may find that the claim you make for workers’ compensation is plain sailing and you get exactly what you asked for. Unfortunately, not every claim is honored. There are problems with insufficient documentation and occasionally insurers may claim that the bad back did not happen at work. If you do encounter any problems or just want some initial useful advice, it is best to talk to an attorney who deals with workers’ compensation. *The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be construed as legal advice. If you file a claim against the Home Depot, or any other party, you may not be entitled to any compensation.
