anyone has experience with WCB's vocational rehab (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Fantom

Fantom

Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Threads
336
Messages
5,169
Location
Port Coquitlam
Website
www.flickr.com
I'm currently dealing with WCB and they decided that I can no longer do my job as it used to be so now I was told I have to find a new one.
I'm trying to figure out what my rights are. Has anyone dealt with WCB's Vocational Rehab department?
Does anyone know what my rights with them are?
WCB has decided that I can't do my job after an injury I sustained at work. So they put limitations on what I could do, and since my work place does not have enough "light duties" or other positions I can work in, I have been told by WCB that I have to find a new job.
The guy I have handling my case is being a hard a$$ and not being very open in his answers. I have also been informed that I have a limited time to find a job (otherwise I'm on my own), and even if it is a job that pays me less, as long as within 5 years it ends up paying close to what I was earning now, it's fine by them.
So has anyone had the "pleasure" of dealing with them? experience in being screwed over?
Thanks
 
Sorry to hear about this Mat. I went through about a 4 year fight with the WCB (now Worksafe BC) when I was young and naive. I had all the specialists saying the same thing about my injury and one WCB doctor saying they were wrong. They wore me done to the point I decided that i needed to put my energy into getting better and give up the fight. None of the doctors told me about getting a lawyer.

Knowing what I know now, I should have consulted with a lawyer who specializes in WCB claims. WCB is no different than ICBC, they take your money and then try to screw you out of any claim. So my recommendation is at least consult with a lawyer who specializes with WCB claims. Write down a timeline before the consultation and bring all correspondence and notes that you have relating to your case. Then go from there.

Perhaps someone her can recommend a good WCB/Worksafe BC claims lawyer?
 
The issue I am having is not yet with any financial compensation. It is with their decision making and trying to figure out what rights I have. I've called a lawyer's office that handles WCB and I can get a 30 minute meeting for free, after that it's $1000 retainer and $175/hr (I should have gone into law). Most of their cases are dealing with settlements and negotiating that.
In my case, they decided I have "plateaued" in my rehabilitation and whatever still hurts I have to put up with, and because of that I can no longer do my job as it used to be. So now I have to find a new job, from scratch, with almost no support from them. As long as I find something that will get me close to where I was within a 5 year time line they're saying I should take it - I'm getting the feeling I'm about to get bent over and screwed.
 
If because of a work injury you can no longer do your job but can possibly do another job, I believe they then they need to:

1) pay compensation for the injury - in your case a partial disability award(usually a lump sum payment). I got a lump sum for hearing loss I suffered working in a sawmill. It wasn't much.

2) provide you with re-training for the new job.

3) pay your wage compensation until you secure a new job

These may be a useful resources:

Appealing a Workers Compensation Decision

WorkSafeBC.com - Volume I
WorkSafeBC.com - Volume II

I would take advantage of the free 30 consultation and as many of them as possible until you get a better idea of your rights. I am assuming that you do not work in a unionized shop. Unions usually provide this service to their members.

Good luck Mat.
 
Thanks, I've also contacted the Ministry of Labour's Advisory Office in hope to get some more answers, but they only help after you've been screwed, are not happy with the outcome and it's pretty much too late. Which is what most information that I have been able to find, seems to tell me. Having issues finding something that informs me of what I can do before it gets to that point.
 
Sorry to hear about the headaches Mat. Only advice I can give is to please not sign anything WCB puts in front of you until you've consulted a lawyer. Best,

D
 
Sorry to hear that Mat.

I had a friend of friend get screwed over by WCB. He had a transmission land on his back at work somehow and broke a vital section of one of his lower vertebrae. The WCB doctor told him from the x-ray, that he had a birth defect and was missing the section of the spine that holds it in place. They put him through the WCB rehab, and made him worse, with the constant random people coming up to him trying to befriend him, and asking to join them in an activity he couldn't possibly do. He was in a lot of pain and getting paranoid, he was frustrated and feeling like he was going nowhere with WCB. He ended up seeing a doctor outside of WCB and got a second opinion and another x-ray. The doctor told him he had broken his back, and it is not a birth defect, and from the WCB rehab treatment had burst one of his discs from the spine being off balance. I think he got a lawyer and WCB paid for his training to be a teacher. He was furious that they fxxxed his lifestyle up, he liked playing soccer, and can't do that anymore. They had to fuse his vertebrae together, since the disc was gone. They spent all this time trying to catch him in a lie, and making him do all this therapy, when the x-ray clearly showed his back was broken and could have been addressed then, without having to fuse his spine together. Why wouldn't they just pay for the right surgery and be off work for 6 months or so, than waste more time and money trying to prove him wrong, when they were wrong all along, and they must have known it.

I will see if I can get his number for you. How fu ked is your back? I know a really good RMT, that knows what he is doing and helped me a lot when I shattered my arm, if your back is not too far gone. I hope WCB hasn't fu ked you up.
 
My injury happened to my neck, compressed disks right at the bottom of the neck where the nerves to my arms are. It isn't bad as long as I stay away from overhead work, which is what my normal job mostly consists of. I have a constant annoying pain, combined with a slight headache but I think I am getting used to that by now. Right now I am just focusing on not ending up unemployed and not being able to get another job because of this. We'll see what happens.
Interesting that you mention the WCB rehab screwing up your friend's back even more, they tried doing the same to me and push me further than my injury allowed and almost screwed me up. I ended up telling them to piss off and unless they wanted to have a chat with my doctor and she would approve everything, I wasn't going to push it.
 
I was exactly in your situation back in 2003' minus the head aches, but could have gotten there, if I didn't find some relief. I was working on winglet mods for some 737s, which required a lot of drilling and reaming overhead, for some reason unknown for the third aircraft, they built the stands higher up than normal. Before I was doing all this work standing and able to keep my head straight, but this time I had to do it on one knee, with my head tilted to one side and keeping an eye on what I was doing. I didn't notice that I did any damage, until the muscles around the base of the neck slowly became tight after a few days working in that condition, by the weekend I woke up in the middle of the night with both arms feeling like they were being constricted of blood at the rotator cuff. They ached and felt numb as hell going all the way down to the finger tips, with the finger feeling fat and swollen.

I ended up helping a friend move some heavy boxes later in the day, and it actually brought some relief by stretching my arms out, at least I was feeling some circulation flowing again. Unfortunately a really good chiropractor moved his clinic to New Jersey, so I tried to find a replacement, and found some OK ones and a couple of s***ty ones with fancy machines, and no real feel for bone cracking. My old chiropractor use to do acupressure, working out all the knots in the muscles, before doing joint manipulations, which went a lot easier. Some of the chiropractors don't do that and try to do it without releasing the muscles, that are immobilizing a joint that is off a little, and making things worse by having other muscles tighten up, and eventually they start pulling on the nerves, and that's when you feel something wrong.

I spent $1200 in massage therapy, which wasn't covered by work, but the only way I could relax the tension between my shoulder and neck, and maitain it from getting worse. I didn't go through WCB at work, I reported it but it seemed more of a PITA to get it started, since my symptoms showed up on the weekend. I suffered like that for 2 yrs, and never feeling a 100%, every now and then let me know it was still there, with a shock from the going down both arms and out the finger tips. I didn't the know RMT that I know now, which might have been helpful back then, meanwhile he was working there all a long.

In 2005' I fluked out and had an eye opener, I went on a trip to Malaysia and Thailand backpacking with some friends. After a long day of walking around in flip flops, seeing the sights in Kuala Lumpur, we strolled by a massage parlor offering Reflexogy, and having it done this treatment in Thailand on previous trips, it's a nice way to relax the tired dogs. I convinced them it was nice and relaxing and a good way to end the day. Things started out nice, with girls serving us tea and washing our feet in hot water, while we kicked back in recliners, then two guys and a girl come in with stools, pressure point sticks and some oils. My buddy got the bigger guy, his girlfriend had the girl, and I got this little guy. They started massaging our feet with oil, and I start closing my eyes and getting relaxed, then all of a sudden it starts hurting like a MF! They started hitting the pressure points with the rounded stick, and I'm thinking to myself "this isn't how it feels in Thailand!", and trying to suck it up like a man holding my breath, but deep down I wanted to cry, my feet were being violently molested by this kid who doesn't know what he is doing, it felt like my feet were going to be black and blue. I go to look over at my friends hoping they were getting better treatment, but they were staring at me holding their breath, trying not to scream bloody murder, or was it MF? When it was all done, we were surprised that our feet weren't black in blue, but actually felt fxxxing good, like walking on pillows. As were walking out, I saw that they did a 1hr shoulder massage for $20, and decided what the hell I'll come back tomorrow and get that done, it's cheap. When I went back the next day, and sat me in a office chair, with the backrest supporting my chest. I had this guy slowly dig his elbow into the top of my neck and down my shoulder, even hitting between the center of my upper back for a whole hour. I felt good when it was done, but it felt like any other deep tissue massage. When I woke up the next morning, I felt exhausted like I didn't sleep at all, but I was pretty sure I slept a lot and soundly. I ended up still trekking around the whole day and toughed it out, meanwhile the muscles in my upper body felt tired and burning, sapping the energy out of me. I couldn't wait for the day to end, so I could lay down and die in my hotel bed. I woke up the next day after a deep sleep, and had the feeling of all this s*** built up in my shoulders wash out of me, as I stood up. I swear I have never felt this good in a long time, like I was 19 again with all this good energy. I guess that shoulder massage unlocked the puzzle of knots, I could actually feel where the spine was off in between the shoulder blades, I still had a slight pinch but not really annoying. I went for another Reflexogy treatment before we left KL, and surprised it didn't hurt as much as the first one, so I guess they must have gotten the evil out of my feet.

We then met up with a friend from work that's malaysian and headed out to one of the Perhentian Islands. After a long crazy taxi ride to the dock, trying to keep the taxi driver awake, since it was near the end of Ramadan our taxi driver was starved and exhausted. We were lucky not to hit a tree while my friend tried to keep the driver awake making friendly conversation to distract him from sleeping. While lounging on the beach, we met this spanish couple, and we started talking about massages and a new found revelation for the healing arts. Well this spanish girl had a pretty bad car accident, and hasn't been the same either until this trip. Before they arrived on the island, they were staying at a hostle in Georgetown in Penang, which coincidentally was our next stop, since my friend from work his wife is from there. They told us of this indian guru, that did this cobra massage and fixed her pain. When we got to Penang, we went on a hunt on Georgetown, because we forgot the name of the hostile they stayed at. So from bar to bar and some restaurants, we asked other backpackers if they had heard of this guru guy or cobra massage, no one had a clue what we were talking about, but were interested in it too. Just as we were going to give up hope and call it night, someone asked the bar owner, and we were told to see this other bar owner down the road, through this alley and onto this quiet street, thinking this is a good time to get mugged if anything, but sure as s*** there was this bar and the guy knew what we were talking about and gave us the directions. We got there as they were just locking the doors to the office and retire for the night, they gave us a number to call in the morning, because he gets booked up pretty fast. I got lucky and got an appointment the next day, since we had one more day in Penang, and back to KL, then onto Thailand. The massage seemed like any other massage with a menthol like oil, but a little odd with him burping a lot while giving the massage, hmm, must have been some spicy Laksa earlier??? When he was done he told me to stand up flat against the wall, and put my arms out straight in front of me, with my hands spread wide open. He told me to open and close them 5 times, and on the fifth closing all this crackling shot out from my right shoulder all the way down to the fingers. I was surprised and so was he, he said usually it comes out of both arms!? I still had that little pinch in my vertebrae, but that was strange enough to be worth it.

We stopped into Bangkok on the way home, and went for a hot oil massage, since it we be a long while before we would get treated like this for cheap. It was a perfect ending to the trip, the finishing move to that massage was to rest my back on his knees, with my arms behind my head like I was doing a sit up. He then hook his arms under my armpits and gently rolled me back onto his knees, and my whole spine from the base of my lower back to the base of my skull, it all clicked together like dominos dropping. The pinch was gone, and my whole spine realigned, that was a great trip, I've never felt better, and some other things that were plaguing me for quite some time went away too.

Unfortunately after 2 weeks of being back from vacation. I crawled into the fuel tank in a wing to remove a fastener, that caused me to contort myself and my neck to see what I was doing and knock out a stupid fastener. I guess being screwed up for so long, it easily went back out of shape, I didn't give it enough time to let that area get stronger, so I still kind of live with it. I went back a few years ago to that place for another shoulder massage, but they changed how they did it and the length of time was cut in half too, so that was a bummer.
 
Oh, with the bulging discs in your neck, I had that too, but did some physio exercises to push them back into position, and open the other side to even them out. It's pretty much reversing all your bad posturing, when your at work. You might lean a certain way when you work over head and put your weight on one side, kind of like repetitive movement, something has gotta give if one side is taking the load all the time.
 
There's a story, thanks for sharing Lance. I was in Thailand a couple times as well, It was great! I know what you mean about the massage therapy over there, went to a couple places and I was exhausted and sore as hell by the time they finished but the next day I felt like I could work for Cirque du Soleil. I doubt WCB will cover a trip to Thailand :D I can always ask.
It's funny how on average most of us don't even realize when we get injured and how serious it can be, we just keep working throgh it and usually make it worse. In my case it was beyond stupid how it happened, I wasn't even doing anything really. I was loading the tools into the jobsite, on a 4 wheel dolly, and I turned while lifting up one side of the dolly to make it over some extension cords and all I felt was a sharp pain in my neck as if I was stabbed. If it were any less than that I likely would have though nothing of it and gone on with my day. Couple minutes after my left arm was tingly and pretty much asleep. Good thing I had the sense of going to first aid but I had no idea with was going to carry on for this long, I just figured it was something minor and silly and would go away after a week.
Hope you're better now.
 
Holy crap ! You better take it easy and delegate helpers when on the trail.

Maybe we can both find high paying low stress jobs together.

Remember with therapy they dont want to cure you , they want you to keep coming back so they stay employed, be carefull .


I have scolios (sp) (painful crooked spine) and slipped disks that is why I walk funny
 
Last edited:
Fantom said:
There's a story, thanks for sharing Lance. I was in Thailand a couple times as well, It was great! I know what you mean about the massage therapy over there, went to a couple places and I was exhausted and sore as hell by the time they finished but the next day I felt like I could work for Cirque du Soleil. I doubt WCB will cover a trip to Thailand :D I can always ask.
It's funny how on average most of us don't even realize when we get injured and how serious it can be, we just keep working throgh it and usually make it worse. In my case it was beyond stupid how it happened, I wasn't even doing anything really. I was loading the tools into the jobsite, on a 4 wheel dolly, and I turned while lifting up one side of the dolly to make it over some extension cords and all I felt was a sharp pain in my neck as if I was stabbed. If it were any less than that I likely would have though nothing of it and gone on with my day. Couple minutes after my left arm was tingly and pretty much asleep. Good thing I had the sense of going to first aid but I had no idea with was going to carry on for this long, I just figured it was something minor and silly and would go away after a week.
Hope you're better now.
Click to expand...

I locked up my lower back from just picking up a small super light cardboard box. I guess the injury was there, but not to the point of being aggravating yet, its the straw that broke the camel's back. All the muscles collasped around the area to immobilize it, just the body protecting itself. Unfortunately it leaves it in the positioned that is causing the problem. I wish I didn't jump back into a job that would throw everything good that was done on the trip out of place. I was messed up for 2yrs, and only spent 2 weeks cured. Once in a while my neck will snap, and I will get a strong shock going down my arms. I have been neglecting trying to find help, since it is $80-$100 for my RMT for an hour, and might take more than one session. I really fluked out on that trip.


Enigma said:
Thailand massages and no happy ending penthouse forum stories? You guys suck.
Click to expand...

There were happy endings after each massage, but not the type you pay for Jeff :D
 
My younger brother went through the same s*** with WCB, he had to have surgery on his wrists, they wanted him to go to therapy way before the surgeon said it was safe, then threatened to cut him off, he went to therapy and it fxxxed them up worse. Later on in his ordeal they wanted him to have his wrists fused.
He finally told them to fxxx off and went back to his surgeon to have what ever he needed done to make them right done out of his own pocket and that brought WCB around.
To be honest i don't know how it ended but i know it changed their attitude in dealing with him.
 
There comes a point when you may have to decide F' trying to get anything from WCB and that you are better off concentrating on getting well rather than getting them to do what they are paid to do. You can be damn sure they will try to blame all or part of you injury on something non-work related that you may enjoy doing.
 
baxter650 said:
Enjoy your new job as a telemarketer.
Click to expand...

:lol::lol::lol:
it's funny 'cause it's true.....but I think at that point I'd rather go into phone sex - make more at it.

Realistically I haven't had it bad so far. They have beOK ok with granting physio treatments, they did send me into the rehab program too soon and tried to push me but I told them I'm in pain and they can't force me, so they eased off a bit. Tried sending me back to work, that failed miserably, so now I'm in limbo. Dealing with a guy that speaks a lot and says nothing.
This is where I think I will have the issue of them trying to just off load me so they can stop dealing with me. Too bad for them I am not a push over, like with everything else, persevere until you achieve the desired result.
I know they likely have their share of false cases and people trying to screw them to just get money for nothing, same as ICBC or other insurance. But when you have medical proof and evidence that cannot be argued, stop being a jerk and help the people out, after all, we're all paying for the service.
Every time something like this surfaces it's amazing how many other people have had similar or worse stories.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

bladedog
BCOR 2023 - Anyone going?
Replies
2
Views
657
bladedog
bladedog

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom