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I currently work for Amazon. My husband was injured on the job. AmCare put ice on his elbow. My husband was told "It's probably a strain"...3 days later he was still in pain. They gave ibuprofen and more ice. This went on for two weeks or more until my husband couldn't even lift a cup of coffee without pain. AmCare told my husband to go to the emergency room. He did. But he went to the emergency room in our city not the city where our Amazon sort center is located.

The ER gave my husband pain pills and advised him to stay home and rest his arm for 3 days with ice and heat. He did this. He sent Amazon a copy of the ER instructions. They took away his UPT (Unpaid time off) 12 hours. He was also told by the ER doctor to contact his PCP who was out of town for Christmas.

My husband discussed this with AmCare who advised him not to return to work until he's seen the doctor and to have an RMI filled out by the doctor. MY husband contacted the doctor that was standing in for our PCP and secured an appointment for a few days later. That doctor advised x-rays. Two days later that doctor called us. Nothing showed on x-rays. He advised to contact the PCP when he returned from his vacation and completed the RMI stating that my husband should not return to work until he's seen his PCP. My husband advised AmCare of this via telephone.

My husband saw the PCP in January and he advised a nerve conduction test. ObamaCare took two weeks to authorize this procedure. It was the beginning of February 2017 when my husband finally had the test done and results back. We had to wait another 4 days to see the PCP for results.

My husband informed AmCare. They suggested that my husband be put on COF (Certificate of Fitness) until the tests and results were back. My husband still couldn't lift his arm or bend it or straighten it and wasn't sleeping at all well. He was still on pain medication that only put him to sleep. The nerve conduction was done and the results were that there was no nerve damage.

The PCP advised that he get an MRI done. Another 2 weeks for obamacare to authorize this procedure and then we had it done. 3rd week of March now. The MRI came back that my husband had a torn tendon and because he's a diabetic it wasn't healing. He needed surgery.

My husband informed AmCare about this and HR got involved and decided to put him on a leave of absence. He used up all of his UPT in December so technically they could have fired him but he was under doctor's care. Throughout all of this, my husband had been telling everyone that this happened at work. No one was writing down that this was a work related injury. AmCare said that they had not documented ANY of his initial visits to AmCare for ice or any of his injury statements as to how it happened. Therefore, my husband could not claim worker's comp for this.

I contacted our local workman's comp dept. and they stated that my husband could and should claim workman's comp and that he should get back pay as well. My husband filled out forms in AmCare regarding this. AmCare was furious that it took him "THIS LONG" to fill out the paperwork. We did not know about workman's comp and had never been injured on the job like this before so we didn't know what the procedure was. It was during this time that AmCare advised my husband that he needed to go to THEIR doctor or they wouldn't pay for it. Our state law says that my husband can see any doctor, emt, nurse, PA, and etc. that he wants to see and he should still be covered under worker's comp.

We spoke with an attorney about this who stated that we needed to contact him back after the surgery. My husband's blood sugar was a bit high but they did the surgery anyway. They had to cut away the scar tissue that had been growing since the injury and drill 2 holes into his bones near the growth plate on his right arm and reattach the tendon and put three stitches in the tendon itself as well as 30 stitches on his outer skin. Then my husband wasn't supposed to lift ANYTHING for two weeks.

We advised AmCare and HR Accommodations about this. Then my husband had to go to rehab after the two weeks were done. This was another 5 weeks. So at the end of april / beginning of june 2017 rehab started. Then we received a letter from Sedgwick (worker's comp) stating that they are denying any payment or wages for this injury.

Accommodations told my husband he could return to work at the end of June. My husband was then starting his Practicum (he was in school) for his Master's Degree in Professional Counseling Psychology. He was well enough to sit and observe and take notes for his practicum but not healed enough to lift 50 pound boxes. He finally had to resign from Amazon. We want his back pay that Workman's comp should have been paying him.

AmCare is now threatening another acquaintance of ours because of her injury. They are forcing her to work after she encountered a work related injury as well. Amazon pushes people beyond their limits and yells at them and threatens them with termination or loss of benefits. ( like my husband being told 4 months after the injury that they won't pay because he didn't go to their doctor.)

Amazon needs to get their workplace injury policy rewritten and start helping their employees. I have worked there for 2.5 years and I have had 5 surgeries for non work related injuries and all is well with me. However, I have never been promoted to any other job onsite. I have applied for various other positions, I have produced a power point presentation for a recycling project at Amazon and was told by several of the general managers that it was terrific and that they had passed it on to corporate. I never heard anything back from them about it. I have never been appreciated for anything there. They have daily questions that come up on the scanners when you scan your badge ID into them and they are listed with the most positive answer first. People don't want to read these questions or take time to answer them so they push on the screen and give whatever answer pops up.

I advised HR that this method of seeking answers to superfluous questions resulted in false positives and that this "feedback" could not be deemed valid or reliable. I was ignored. They want the responses to appear that everyone at Amazon is happy. WE ARE NOT HAPPY. There are many people there that complain daily about the management and AmCare and the unstandardized way they quote "STANDARDIZED PROCEDURES" and then change that standard for the next 3 weeks.

They do NOT follow OSHA safety laws. They claim that they do, and they give us little tests (Open book test) that make it look like people know about safety hazards but most don't have a clue what to do. Amazon is not looking to retain employees; they are seeking to hire and fire before animosity, unionization, and anger arises. One employee even said he wanted to bring a shotgun to work and shoot everyone of the managers. He was put on suspension and then fired 3 weeks after they let him come back.

Our local sort center and fulfillment center both really need unionization.

anonymous current employee