Discharged for Tardiness After a Work Injury, Defective Work Boots

[3toesleft]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: OKLAHOMA

I had a foot injury to my pad(meta-tarsul) area, across and behind several toes over a nine week period of slow healing.
The initial injury was an innocuous 'snapping' of a ligament or bone during an early walk to my construction work station on a Monday, while inside a warehouse facility. I was only injured while working, in routine movements, initially when carrying a box of tools. I felt no pain, and no swelling immediately, but in several later days work on ladders, and, additionally, when a worker hopped from an adjacent ladder 2nd step(~2 feet up) onto the toes, I watched increasing swelling and pain with use. The supervisor watched the other worker hop down onto my foot, and I made aggressive complaint and explanation to all watching, in front of the supervisor who was just six feet away, watching and listening. That company rep. just turned and walked away.
After the initial injury of a 'snapped' part of my foot on the Monday, I changed to my new pair of 'sale priced' steel toed work boots which were at home in a box unused. I paid $10 dollars for them, but they appeared perfect in workmanship. On the day the worker hopped into my foot, I kneeled to work on a floor level panel, and the new boots bent along the middle of the foot pad, above all the toes, causing severe 'searing effects' as with torn tissues. Pain and further swelling happened, and I changed that next day to older used boots again.
Over the next nine weeks I was treated to silent walk-away responses as the only response by both the supervisor and the foreperson. It became an obvious pattern.
As I had never had a foot injury lasting more than a few days in my life of 35 years working, I tried to be accurate and restrained in my reportage verbally to the supervisor and the foreperson about three times a week.
Towards six to eight weeks I actually explained that I could not work on the ladders and offered to work on the lower sections of small buildings we manufacture. I kept my pace with others, and in all those weeks, I used my heel only to 'hobble' to work, and while working our ten hour construction shifts.
I described the swelling going to a rather low level at home, where I set up a sling and rested each night. As I worked each day, the work efforts caused swelling and pain for eight of the nine weeks I remained on the job. I reported verbally to the two in charge for the nine weeks. I was told near the end of the period in my first conversation with a hospital receptionist that I had to go to the company Worker Comp. group to consider an x-ray or other forced reportage on paper.
At that point I had been discussing the full detailed content with the ~15 workers around me, who had been watching the events, and looked at the foot a couple times with my socks off, so as to compensate for the lack of ongoing interest by the supervisor and foreperson. I smelled a 'rat' in the works with the simple refusal of the a written report by the company group, was warned along the nine weeks pattern about other co-workers experiences in having to hire lawyers to secure their jobs during injuries, and discussed the probability of a pattern of denial and discharge.
I was discharged in the first week of Jan., 2011, and was written up as a 'tardiness' discharged employee. No admission of the nine week injury has been allowed at the company, and I have recorded denials after discharge from the 'safety officer' who is a one day per week employee at another building. That 'safety representative' of the large federal standards sized corporation, was present in near silent presence during my discharge.
It was claimed later I was not allowed to be judged as being given allowance of the same number of 32 hours ' unpaid flex time off' for lateness as all the other hundred employees are allowed. That timing issued to each in new full amount on the New Years date, but was not allowed to myself in this years sequence. The denial of the pre-offered unpaid time was not written, but was a unwritten and unexpected occurance. A 'separate but unequal' measure of the 1-2 minute late clock-in in early Jan, 2011, was explained as my involuntary termination reason.
I did have a number of similar tardies during the prior year, but the counting is normally given an application of new total allowance each New Years. I never expired the allowed unpaid time total during my 5 years employment there.
Just the third week of Dec. in 2010, I was given a notice of possible discipline if I was late even once(one minute or more) in a one month period. That notice was issued at 7 1/2 weeks into the injury sequence.
I have not taken injury claims in the past against this employer, nor any others in 35 years. I have not had Worker Comp. in that time.
I take a few days per year off for illnesses, and a few for vacation in daily amounts, leaving most all paid time on the company books as due to me. I was due at the injury and discharge about 9 days at injury, and accrued 12 days paid allowed 'off' at the discharge. I thought I was safe from immediate discharge as the promise and pattern was to 'layoff' unpaid a worker for 1-3, or even a week, if discipline was conducted. After the discharge my unused 'paid time' was issued to me in large portion.
As this was an injury leading to a discharge with a transformed reasoning, and as the new but 'sale priced' steel toed work books were worn as new on the job at the injury occurrence, is there a product liability coverage with discounted boots, or, can the supervisor and foreperson be held as responsible for my lack of potential foretelling of the degree and longevity of the injury, and my lack of medical treatment of the foot damages?
I sought hospital referral to bone clinics towards the end, and was refused my paid medical requests, as they stated on the telephone I was to plead with the company. who, upon my contact refused all concern and coverage of the nine week sequence.

Is a discharge considered sufficient 'good cause' with repeated lateness of a minute to several minutes per week pattern despite allowed 'hours in counting', and can the injury be a matter which would never be considered if no clinics and doctors agree to be responsible for treatment?

Does a boot manufacturer or retailer carry full liability for injury if the use was routine and the product was on sale, or does the Worker Comp. detailing offer a coverage of a late attempted reportage by a forsaken and muted injured worker?

As I worked in Oklahoma, the OK Worker Compensation and labor practices applied.

Does OSHA give guidence in injury detailing, or, are the reportage processes of the US D.O.L. covering a large interstate shipper of a high dollar product, when reportage is denied by 'the silence treatment' response to workers attempted reportage to supervision and safety overseers?

How do I figure a boot product as partly liable, and is a receipt actually my only proof of purchase? Can liability or injury condition a company claim of termination for tardiness?

As I worked through this nine week ordeal, is my recovery lost in all matters?

My foot is still lumpy where the foot pad bones are conjoined above and behind the toes; 1/4" thick lumps and ridge behind several toes.

Is a lack of forward aggressive demanding control of this type of sequence a failing in any later action attempts?

[free9man]

Okay, I can't help you on the termination part but on the boot issue...you're probably outta luck. Generally speaking, even steel toed boots are NOT designed to take the impact of a human being weighing I'd guess 170+ lbs dropping on them from a height of 2 feet. There are some out there that might be able to take that kind of abuse but they aren't going to be $10, more like $100s. The boots your bought were designed, most likely, for the occasional hammer, brick or board....not a person.

Depending on the rating of the boot, which should have been on the tags and maybe a label inside the boot, they may only have been rated for electrical and/or puncture resistance...not impact.

[cbg]

I'm not 100% certain I understand your question but....

How many times were you tardy, even by one minute, and what was the average?

No law in any state requires an employer to accept tardiness in any employee. If you are due in at 8:00, you are tardy at 8:01. The amount of paid leave you may have available is immaterial. Nor does any law require an employer lay off or suspend an employee in lieu of termination.

If this does not answer your question, please clarify.

[3toesleft]

ref; free9man, I was stating the arch of the foot was injured by the other worker, behind the steel toe section, and upon stumbling off the foot, the damage was serious enough for me to stop working and hold the leg whereupon I turned to see if the supervisor was in the office behind me, and he was only six feet away, watching the scene. I described the damage as the worst of my five years of working, and he then turned and walked away, having seen and heard every word and action. The several workers in the group at the ladder, were snickering as the worker stepped off the foot, and no written document was drawn up even in that obvious scene. Could there be any more clear sequence? The boots actually seem not bad as work boots with a week of wearing in now, but the foot was to swollen to fit in the new boots, so I used looser old steel toed shoes instead for the remaining eight weeks to the discharge. I was not confused much at the scene of human drama, as the same worker is a posing out of control gay young guy who was used for three years to fondle the men at work, particularly myself, and no amount of reaction posturing either friendly or hostile works completely to quell the determinating management setup scene during the three years. It has become far less oppressively contactual, but required I issue serious legal promises to the young guy constantly, even with a tight lipped silence by the supervisor. If it were injurious as it is now, I would have been writing the complaints, and would have taken an outside legal action. As is, I can be very humorous and tolerant even of injury, or insult, and have worked toward a tolerable co-working arrangement with the three persons described. We are as correcting as we feel we should be, but there is still a 'unique' and unusual working 'setup' situation in the background of the drama. It could have been a broadcast TV show on the job, and it is leveling out to close to normal. How staged was the jump to my injury? I cannot get a confessional or even a laughter type response, only a claim of the routine of accident during work. This young guy has serious orientation and slight psychotic incompetencies, but is becoming more functional and work oriented at work. I didn't need a damaged foot. I keep long hours at home in some private work I perform. I haven't any use for damages or waste of my time and walking capability. Most of the problem resulted as the weeks of no report and no offered light work wore on with my being requested to work on ladders and doing heavy work, despite the obvious.
ref; cbg, I was in a pattern of periodic lateness, as I was watching for package mailed to my home doorway each week. The Fed Ex and UPS claim they do not have to leave notices of missed deliveries, but are only required to leave a package in a public place unattended, hoping the addressed person will find the package later in the days delivery, or, the following day. Even a public hotel, an apartment building, and a street sidewalk near a doorway is accepted as a proper delivery for the two crooked services. That is claimed as a courtroom decision aspect of those two companies instruction to drivers these years. You should check into that problem. It is crazy and crooked, as it is not advertised as a liability incurred to purchasers.
As a result of the dangers of my packages costing sometimes hundreds of dollars each, I stayed to the last possible minutes to wait for the two delivery drivers, and received hundreds of packages last year. I explained this to the supervisor who apparently has a lack of coping built in, and he was understanding most of the year, but a little less responsive toward the fall-winter months. I had a hundred lates plus, but was well within the timing totals allowed at my employer as a fixed total offered during each year. This has been a yearly standard for employees routinely. Without the packages abandoned at my public doorway, I would not be often late.
We give 55-60 hour weeks routinely to this company, and I and a few others are conscientious about hard work all the time once working. The background here again, is that the performance of most who are friends of management, is not the same, and lacks commitment and our industrious efforts. That is a peculiarity as was the aspect about the younger guy hopping onto the foot, possibly by a choiceful action calculated. As I resisted the various intrigues, I seem to be receiving a pay-back possibly. I could go into a dozen zany intrigues not described, and you wouldn't believe the story as a full recipe for drama.
As I didn't react with self determined lack of performance, I have been played for a low reactance fool. This was a high injury rate location during the past two years.
What I find odd is the insurance group not allowing me an X-ray of the damage. It was clearly a break type damage or related. No favorable bone specialist tolerance either. And then the company cannot be bothered by an acknowledgment of any injury despite the lumpy healed bones. I still have pain and a different appearing foot in that area. The toes now spread to the outside on three of them, and both feet are differing in look.
I even have a $99 dollar 'flex spending' medical investment for this year 2011 left in the books of the company accounts, and they would not allow me to pay full price for the X-ray
I requested.
This is toilet of a nation in matters of law and labor, but to denegrate good workers in actions like this seems nearly illegal. Both hospital and employer are standing obvious content, but I have left a open door for the excuse of tardiness. There were other workers who used there entire vacation, paid and unpaid times as a full loss to the company, and they are still employed. They, however, are in the vein of corrupt styles of living, and so the drama is set for a wider story. I live in restraint, despite investing in my off-hours work with computers and imaging, for which I was buying the many packages causing some periodic slight lateness. I always compensate the employer during each day, and the lates were left unpaid rather than their suggestion that I take my paid time off, in larger hour sections on days of lateness.
The boots were Brahma 'Brutis II', and they 'break' or bend, near the middle of the boot length. That is odd, as I have never injured my foot in any other boot pairs. I do not wear that type usually. The company 'safety officer, who is a part-time employee at our facility, claimed my injury was a result of the boot, and denied me integration for that and a half dozen other side-stepping reasonings. Perhaps I should bring a photo of the boot bend for you to study. Perhaps the wrong steel toe size applied in a boot? How many odd events can be considered?
My UIB determination is now couched around the foot injury. I have to present a claim of involuntary and slighted incidental group actions leading to a veiled discharge story by weeks end. Possibly a few attestation reports by overseeing workers? I would prefer to be re-employed , but that is not common.

[cbg]

Okay, if you're going to get any help on these boards, you need to do two things. Cut your posts down by about two thirds (if I wanted to read a novel I have a more interesting one on the night stand) and put in some white space so we don't ruin our eyes trying to read it. I"m not even going to try to read that.

[free9man]

ref; free9man, I was stating the arch of the foot was injured by the other worker, behind the steel toe section,

Does a boot manufacturer or retailer carry full liability for injury if the use was routine and the product was on sale,

How do I figure a boot product as partly liable, and is a receipt actually my only proof of purchase? Can liability or injury condition a company claim of termination for tardiness?

You clearly asked if the boot manufacturer or retailer is liable, or at least that's how most people would interpret what I quoted above. I told you that they most likely are not due to the impact being far outside the realm of acceptable for a $10 pair of boots, steel-toed or not.

If you were attempting to say something else, there is no way on Earth someone would know because of the total disarray that is your post.

[3toesleft]

In a human drama manufactured workers environment, the details should be controlling, but as you have stated, even my attempt to fathom such corrupt group behaviors is burdensome. If simple stupidity streamlining of legal matters is what we are discussing, then no reality is under consideration, and, yes, I agree in that regard, we are being fed total corrupt behavior of society walking behind the total corrupt behavior of the legal trained persons who mangle the complex legal content to 'make a dollar' and to 'get through to happy hour' as a wealthy middle class syndrome. The economic management of workers in profit taking carries the qualities of the legal processes of the courtroom management of society. A residue of kingdoms issuing order through fiefdoms.
Easy thinking as we all can watch on the training TV tube, is a run-away syndrome of the U.S. I have very serious not discussed content in the background in this social drama, and that makes following motivated job actions difficult even for me. I am surprised you didn't discuss whether a 'job action' in a non-organized work place is a company liability.
I am also surprised no one offered a response as to whether a worker can secure written witnessing of other workers who concur with a victims story for both UIB (unemployment) and Worker Compensation disability claims.
No response as to the supervisors refusal to cope, and no response on the three year long groping session waged by a co-ordinating management hiring and training team. The team happen to be retired military persons grouping as tightly as a school of fish. The young gay kid who can't stop groping and making passes at men is also from the military before this first employment position. I have a gang group who do not want to work more than 4-5 hours per 10 hour shift. As I compensate for this lack of morals and work ethic with my conduct of hard work and polite interaction, the result is noise and now injury, with a 'silence treatment' by management representatives. Upon complaining over five years I was told to 'go get another job if I was unhappy' with a majority not behaving properly.
What I described should be illegal. Perhaps that is not the flavor of government this nation proscribes in this subject. Each time period has it's social drama corrupt swings of dis-ordered thinking and enforcement.
In regard to a couple of mangled sentences late in my second post here, it was produced by the demand of your forum cutting the 'logged in' linkage of my posting as it was posted, wherein I had to rewrite quickly and re-log-in to make a post. Don't you think your group could place a warning on the pages that a re-logging-in is necessary upon writing?

Can a company claim that new work boots are contributory to a action of another worker, or not?

Does a job action exempt management responsibility for management control of workers when the details are witnessed nearly within the arms reach of an overseeing supervisor?

Can a supervisor remain silent over nine weeks by choice and not be a management responsible party?

Feel free to be critical.

[free9man]

Dude, we are trying to offer constructive criticism. You need to organize your thoughts better, perhaps in a word/notepad document, prior to attempting to post to avoid auto-logout. As cbg noted, spaces between paragraphs would help as well. There are things in your post that almost seem nonsensical or unrelated to the issue at hand. If you presented your case to whomever you complained to in the same rambling, disjointed manner as you do here....that is why you lost.

[3toesleft]

I'll accept your response as denying a discussion of content not favorable to the company. My best interpolation of your lack of pointed question response in regard to job actions of non-organized workplaces.

I assume you also are not at liberty to describe the networked 'mob' background which precludes workers seeking Worker Comp. and legal action from further obtaining employment at incident workplaces.

For a worker in such confinement, the world can appear as "The Trueman Story" movie stage.

Pointed questions not answered.

I'll know whether I failed entirely next week.

[free9man]

We cannot discuss what we cannot understand.