Hi Beamish.
I,ve worked for my employer for nearly 2 years and in that time I have had to refrain from working for nearly 6 momnths on and off with injurys.
I,ve been off sick now since noverber 24th 2008 due to my hip injury, I have spoken to them regarding the proble with the lifitng gear being near inadquate for the job, This results in having to lift heavy reels up to 21kgs in weight about eye hight and lower knee heightfor my entire shift. I ve asked to be moved to another machine. I,ve even spoke to them about moving the lift or modifying the work area. Both ideas I put forward have been knocked back. There fully aware of whats causing my problem but dont help me so I can only work for so long then have to go home on the sick.
All I have been told Is that "they Pay me to run the machine, If I can not run the machine then I surgest you go home on the sick " Thats what my manager told me. They have even gone so far now to give me a verbal warning for having so much time of work.
There trying to say that no one else has complained about this therefore they are not going to do any thing.
Other operators have spoken up about this lift with me to our assistant manager, there H&S manager knew about this mid last year and did nothing about it, My shift supervisor has been told about what,and why has been the problem. Still nothing is going to be done about it.
My employer won't allow any union in there premises either.
The CAB are totally usless in this area as well.
At the moment, I'm having physio at our local Hospital, the doctor is now getting me to see a specialsits as well.
I've refused our HR managers demand to see my medical records as I explained that my employer has done nothing to help me in any way.
Our local Goverment H&S officer is going to make a site visit on the grounds of what I have explained to her.
It's seems that I'm suffering Lower Limb Dissorder ( LLB) and is hard to diagnose as it shows no signs of injury as it's all internal pain (diffused Pain.) It's usually diagnosed as RSi Type1 or RSi Type2 .Type 1 being what people using computers get and they have visual signs of an injury.
Hope this makes sense mate. Not been able to ride bike since last year now.
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