Very early in my career as an investigator I was interviewing a senior manager of a large manufacturing plant about a worker’s compensation claim submitted by one of his employees. This was the third claim which had been submitted there in a relatively short space of time. Mid-interview we were interrupted by one of the supervisors who whispered to his boss, “Another claim’s been lodged.” The senior manager threw me a glance and said something completely unexpected: “Obviously, there is unhappiness on the factory floor. We need to find out what, or who the problem is.”

Every workplace – whether it is the Ford motor company with 5,000 employees – or your local café with a workforce of three – has its own unique culture. Obviously, places with a positive culture thrive. But sometimes, a culture can develop which makes the company an unpleasant (and unproductive) place to work. This can happen for a whole host of reasons and as part of that negative culture the worker’s compensation system can become hijacked so that employees are more intent on pursuing a claim for reasons other than being compensated for a workplace injury.

Let me hasten to add that I’m not claiming that the majority of worker’s compensation claims are bogus – I happen to think the opposite to be the case. What I’m referring to here is that small percentage of cases where employees lodge worker’s compensation claims in pursuit of an agenda – to have time off when a previous request for leave was denied; to embarrass or humiliate management because of some grievance, or to get something for ‘free’. This sort of action thrives in a business where the prevailing attitude is ‘nobody cares’ and where management have allowed this attitude, this culture, to be the norm. First, there is one claim, then another, and then a cluster.

One way to tackle this cultural problem is to investigate all claims. It sounds drastic, but it works. Over time this drives the number of claims lodged down exponentially. And it’s not because of any suggestion of intimidation or threats from management. If you investigate each and every claim you send this message to your workforce:

(i) Management care about safety.

(ii) We want to know what happened to prevent a reoccurrence of injuries like yours.

(iii) We are not fools who accept all allegations as fact. If you submit a claim someone outside the company will want to interview you to make an independent evaluation of the evidence.

(iv) We care about our company, we care about how our money is spent and we care about our employees. Worker’s compensation is that to compensate employees who are genuinely injured in the course of their employment.

Contact the Brosnans Investigations team Australia-wide on 1300 55 44 78 or click here now to book an investigation online.

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