Forced Workers Compensation Claim

[pegasus70]

Can anyone tell me what the legal implications are if you find out that one of your management team forced an employee to claim workers compensation against their will? The employee is very easily bullied and is really not happy about the way things have happened.
We do have this particular manager involved in a bullying investigation currently as she has claimed that she is the one being bullied by several other staff and we are using an external HR provider to do this. So far the results have been that she is most definitely the one doing the bullying and there is documented evidence to back these claims.
The main question I have is what the legal implications are of her pushing the employee into a workers compensation claim?

Can someone help me with this?
Thanks

[kevinh]

Originally Posted by pegasus70

The main question I have is what the legal implications are of her pushing the employee into a workers compensation claim?

Was the compo claim genuine?


Wearing my Admin hat - Just a friendly word of caution - please ensure that you do not reveal any details on this forum which could identify any of the parties involved

[pegasus70]

I really can't comment on whether it was genuine or not as it is complicated and I would have to reveal too many details......
I know it should be a simple yes or no..... but it's not.....
I'm just not sure if legally this manager could push someone into a claim that they didn't want to make?....

[kevinh]

I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice, but I would think that it makes a huge difference whether the Workcover claim was genuine or not.

While it might breach your own workplace policies, simply advising/persuading someone to make a genuine claim is probably not illegal.

However, if an employee was bullied and effectively coerced into making a claim they didn't want to make, then the employer is almost certainly liable for allowing the bullying to occur.

I have no idea whether the employee would have a civil case against the person who bullied them and coerced them into making a compo claim.

If the claim was not genuine or warranted, then it could get really messy, because it would probably be classed as fraud, which of course is a criminal offence.

I should stress that this is just my personal view of the situation you have described. It would be interesting to hear what others think, especially a lawyer

[Mark D]

If the injury was work related, it is in the best interests of both the employee and the employer for a workers comp claim to be lodged.

[pegasus70]

slightly complicated due to the fact that it isn't a physical injury as such, but a stress claim....

[sporstcorpelite]

hi....I think that it makes a huge difference whether the Workcover claim was genuine or not.

[AlexT]

the situation seems to be a lot bigger than just the 'forced' workers comp claim. I think you are on the right path bringing in an external HR provider to sort through the issues. Managers who are bullying pose a huge risk for an organisation and really shouldn't be tolerated in this day and age. Hopefully as some time has now passed you have got on top of your organisational policies and procedures in this area. Do you have a formal complaint handling procedure? This is definitely a useful tool to make sure complaints like this are handled effectively from the start and that senior management is across potential risk from the beginning of the issue.