So ive been working for the Kroger co. for 7 months. Thats more than enough time to be in the union, so ive been paying my union dues just as much as everyone els who works there does. Long story short im almost 19 years old in exactly one week but ive had back problems since I was about 13.I havent had any flare ups for over year now and this past Saturday I was pushing carts (our store does not have an electric one so we have to push manually) and I went to turn the carts and I twisted my back the wrong way and I told the assistance manager I couldnt push carts that day which he said that was fine but it was still hurting the next day and it was so bad I was crying and he told me to just go home if I cant push carts because I did have a doctors note telling me I could go back to work just not to push carts for a week but Brian (our assistance manager) just told me not to work the whole week. I could bag groceries just fine, and they don't have me on the schedual for next week because i Have to go back to the doctor in the e.r. that told me to not push carts to tell them I can come back, but the only way I could come back to work is if I had any pain medicine because it gets bad enough to where I can not walk, but I could easily bag groceries if i had pain medicine. Ive got a bulged disk in my lower back from the tension put on it from pushing carts. Do you think I should report this as a work related injury? Or was Brian in thr right?
You need to file a incident/work accident forum as soon as possible. If you went to the docter/er after it happened you need to make sure Kroger pays the bill. This happened at work. If you told the store management that it occured at work they are trying to get you not to file a claim. This comes out of the stores budget and managers do not want to pay for injuries on the job. Make sure you file this forum as soon as possible. If the manager says it is to late because it is past three days, say you informed them with in three days that it was work related. They are supposed to make sure a forum is done. If they do not want to file the forum, get your district Human Resources dept. involved. Even if you had prior problems with your back, it was not a problem until you injured your self at work. Protect you rights, you have to make sure you do everything that needs to be done. If your back is screwed up it will be with you your whole life.
