I’m sure you all remember the video of the UC cop, Lt. Pike, spraying various protestors with pepper spray.
He was just awarded by a judge a $38,000 settlement in a worker’s compensation claim for all the stress the incident caused him.
Is this just from either a legal or moral angle particularly when this is the paragraph of the article.
California workers’ compensation is its own little world. I’ve been a work-comp secretary for over a decade now, and this doesn’t surprise me one bit.
The article doesn’t say if the case was settled by Stipulation, leaving future medical care open, or Compromise and Release, “buying out” all aspects of the case. I’m inclined to think the former, due to the odd dollar amount - C&R’s are usually for an even amount.
The amount of money an injured worker gets (and his/her attorney gets a percentage of) is all determined by formulas, depending on what the various doctor’s reports say. From the article, it sounds like they went to an agreed-upon expert, and the settlement was based on his opinion.
Fair? Just? Probably not. But I’ve seen way worse abuses in the WC system. The various reforms have curbed some of the worst abuses, but then the clever applicant’s attorneys figure out new ways to abuse the system to get more money for themselves and their clients.
How could it be worse? Did someone receive workers compensation for witnessing their own shooting spree?
Oh, you have no idea. I can’t talk about specifics, of course.
Take a relatively minor injury - say, a broken toe, a sprained wrist, a sore back. In normal medicine, that injury would be treated, the person would recover with perhaps some minor permanent disability, and that would be that. (I can’t do pushups because of my WC carpal tunnel injury years ago, for example. But I never got an attorney for my injury, I just got treatment, braces and eventually surgery.)
Now, get that person to a sleazy work-comp attorney, and next thing you know, they are claiming psychiatric injury (depression, anxiety), sleep disorder, sexual dysfunction (seriously!), etc, etc. It used to be that fibromyalgia was the big thing after a minor orthopedic injury, but the 2004 reform did away with that. Now, no one gets fibromyalgia from a work comp injury anymore, but they can’t sleep and they can’t get laid. :rolleyes: But the more “disabled” you are, the more money you get.
As I said on a friend’s facebook today, if he was performing within the expectations of his job, then yes, it’s likely that he did deserve workman’s comp. If he was acting outside of the expectations/policies of his job, then the court was wrong to award him the money.
Maybe I should start pepper spraying people and see if I can get compensated for doing so.
I’m not sure what the mystery is. If you hurt yourself on the job, even if it is your own negligence, worker’s compensation generally covers the injury.
Maybe there would have been an exception here if UC could have proven in a court that his use of pepper spray has no professional purpose and was somehow outside the scope of his work (perhaps because he had malicious intent rather than just being a fuck-up). But even if those things are true, it would probably have cost more than 38k to prove.
If the guy’s job did in fact require him to take that action, it’s possible it was very damaging to him. It’s also possible, and I think more likely, that he was a sadistic douche.
But I’m reminded of a recent article in The Atlantic about Scandanavian prisons. The author claims that some reforms there were taken to lessen the harm done to corrections officers. Apparently they were highly stressed by some punitive actions they were obligated to take toward prisoners.
Workers compensation should not cover injuries resulting from the fact you committed a crime, nor injuries resulting from refusing to follow OH&S requirements. If his feelings were hurt by the public response to him assaulting people, he can go fuck himself.
Yes, please do. Report back to us how that works out for you.
Because, unless part of your job is to pepper spray people when required, then you’re committing a crime.
That’s nice. Did you quote my post in that response for a reason?
Just FYI, it was exactly these comments, all over the internet, that got him the $38K. He was basically cyber-bullied into a depression and required treatment.
On one hand, getting sprayed once in the face with pepper spray doesn’t seem like it would be worth thousands of dollars, unless you had an allergic reaction.
On the other hand, stress from work related issues can very well be worth tens of thousands.
I think we instinctively think this was a bad deal because most of us sympathize with the students and not the cop. If we just boil it down to a work related issue and ignore what the politics of it is…I don’t agree with the settlement, but I can understand it
Because you said “…even if it is your own negligence…” Maybe that is correct in California, but it shouldn’t be, not if your employer has taken reasonable measures to educate you.
No, he doesn’t. This is really effing stupid.
It’s correct everywhere, at least in the United States. The flip side of the coin is that you cannot sue your employer in tort (except for intentional torts.)
California, however, is unique in allowing recovery for purely psychological injuries. Everyone else requires that an industrial injury have a physical element.
I take that back. Iowa, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kansas, and possibly one or two others also allow recovery. It’s still stupid.
Perhaps you should watch the full video. To refresh your memory, the cops came to clear out campers. They had to arrest some of the students. The rest of the group refused to let the cops take away those arrested. They had about 10 minutes to let the cops go before they started with the pepper spray.
The cops were inside the ring trying to get out with the people they arrested. How does that invoke sympathy for the students?
I agree. Especially when it results from something that is one of your job duties. Assuming he was justified in deploying pepper spray, that is a known part of his job.
Can I be a stripper in California and then get WC because I subsequently suffer from emotional distress of having exposed myself to strangers?
Wow it took to post 12 before the real reason for the award came out.
Nice reading for detail folks.