The Shaft

Have you a WCB claim that is being stalled for no reason at all? And have been waiting to get paid? Well you are not along as there is lots of us in the same boat.

In the 25 or so years I have been working in the construction industry, mostly self-employed, I have had my share of cuts and bruises but have never been off work along enough to ever make a WCB claim for injuries that would last any length of time, until now.

Over the years you become more and more careful and professional in your work and try to avoid situation that you know could cause an accident. No one wants to be hurt or off work, specially because you have a family to feed and bills to pay.

Here\’s how I got injured on the job,

I ran into an old friend in the commercial end of the industry who as been in the business for a year or two longer than me, except I stayed in the private sector where I felt safe, knowing I was working directly for the owner, and I got paid sooner, not havng to wait the 30 or 60 days like the guys working in the commercial end of the industry. Yes! there is more money in commercial jobs, but less headache in the private sector.

Ron, whom I ran into who offered me a job, as he really needed the help to take on a project he was doing for the Federal Government out on the military base just north of Edmonton, Alberta.

After some small talk and phone calls over the following week, Ron talked me into going to work for him on the job at the base.

The job that was to take a month turned into a couple of months, as they were please at my performance and offered me more work, even a full time position. I was working 7 days a week more than I would have on my own and wanted to give them a good job as I was proud of my work, something they saw in me, and the reason I was offered a full time position.

I told Ron this was a one-time thing as I still felt the private sector was better for me as the hours were less and I felt more comfortable at working for myself. I think this up-set Ron a little and he was hoping I would follow him in doing more work for him.

Well, it was about 3 weeks to the end of my job when I got injured working on a Saturday with Ron and the rest of the guys trying to complete one of the many projects that needed to get done so Ron could invoice the owner, (the Government), before the month end deadline.

The Accident..

I thought I just pulled some muscles in my back and felt I was pushing myself too hard, so I starting taking over the counter pain killers and keep on working to complete the work I was hired for over the next 3 weeks. Now completing my work and with the pressure off and some time on my hands for myself I decided to see my doctor as something was really wrong as the pain was getting worse. I couldn’t keep taking these pain killers everyday, specially because I was a health nut and never drank or ate red meat.

My doctor told me I would have to take a couple of weeks off work and I over worked myself, which I know as I never used to work weekends when I was on my own.

Being off work now resting, things got worse and it was time to get to the bottom of what was really wrong, so the visits to my doctor got more so over the course of time.

To get to the story sooner I found out I had 2 crushed disked in my back and would needed emergency surgery to relieve the now un-bearable pain that left me in bed most of the time.

Knowing it would be awhile before I could work again I knew I had to get after looking at all the people that owned me money and to collect this money as I needed to secure the next couple of months, the time I thought I would be off work. Ron owned me the most, around $18’000. 00 and I started to phone him for my money. Ron\’s excuse was he was waiting for his money from the Government and I would soon be paid. Well time was going on and still no money, so I thought I would contact the Government myself to see what the problem was and why this time we had to wait for our money. Well to my surprise the Government had no problem with the work as Ron was paid after supplying them with a stat-deck saying all of his employees and sub-contractors were paid by him. This of course was not true and I was now concerned I was getting the shaft from Ron.

So, now I decided to contract my lawyer and start legal proceedings against Ron and his company R.W.K Construction Co. (1995) Ltd. for $10’000. 00 owned to me personally, and $8’000. 00 owned to my company for sub-contract work. With now taking legal action against my so called friend of over 20 years, I was now on his shit list and he was no longer talking to me or returning calls or faxes sent to him.

Now things started to get worse as I was now told by my doctors I would be off work for longer than I expected and would have to make a WCB claim to cover the expenses I would endure. I filled out the WCB claim papers and expected it would take about a month for the checks to kick in and I could pay off some of the expense I had put out for live-in home care and other things that I had to pay for as a result of my injuries, around $7’000. 00 by now.

Well it was a second blow as now I was dealing with a guy like Ron all over again but this time it was WCB and they too, are not returning my calls or faxes I have sent in. Now I am deciding legal action a second time against WCB and now will be spending more time in legal proceedings with them then I will with trying to recover from my injuries that are getting worse because I now have to worry about how I am going to support myself with no money coming in.

I head of this happening but never thought it would happen to me. If you are in the same boat and want to do something about it, then contact me with your story and lets get together to form a group to gather our resources together to do something about what WCB is doing to their clients. This is a criminal act against injured workers in Canada and our Province, and they should not be allowed to get away with it.

Contact me, William Harrison at:

Phone/Fax: 1(780) 451-3366

Email: william@albertaweekly.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Your Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.