Benefits: Law firm agrees to help with workers’ comp cases

You might think workers’ compensation is mostly for building-trade workers, bus drivers, factory workers, firefighters and police. You might think workers’ compensation automatically kicks in when someone has an accident on the job and reports it to his or her employer. You might think you have to lose time from work to be eligible for workers’ compensation. If that’s what you think, think again.

Here are the facts:

If any worker has a work-related accident and gets medical treatment, she or he will be eligible for workers’ compensation.

Also, spending years at work using a computer may have caused carpal tunnel syndrome — making you eligible for workers’ compensation. Working for years lifting and moving hospital patients, working in awkward positions or doing the same job again and again may also make you eligible for workers’ compensation due to a repetitive injury, such as a torn rotator cuff or back injury.

And you do not have to lose time from work to have a workers’ compensation claim.

Most importantly, workers’ com-pensation does not automatically kick in when you report an injury to your employer. There is a claim form you must fill out and send to the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Unfortu-nately, this claim form (called a C-3 form) is not available from your employer.

As a new member benefit, UUP has forged an alliance with a statewide law firm — Fine, Olin & Anderman, LLP (FOA) — to represent UUP bargaining unit members for workers’ compensation and Social Security disability claims.

This union-friendly law firm — which concentrates on workers’ compensation and Social Security disability — will help you file the claim, represent you at hearings and answer your questions. There is no out-of-pocket cost to the member.

Call the law firm at (800) FOA-4-UUP if you have been injured on the job. Be sure to identify yourself as a UUP member.

— Gail Maloy, Director of Member Benefits and Services