This is a final summary of what I experience in a small part in my fight over the last two years : The damage done when an injured worker gets railroaded The experience I went through after getting railroaded form the Cenovus energy work site. It didnt take to long after my injury to know I could well be in for the battle of my life after I tore my quadriceps on the job site for Cenovus Energy. A lot of my co-workers were sending me texts not to sign anything after I was injured that day. You can only imagine the fear I felt as my employer was in my room the night of the accident that happened earlier that morning. He had me literally cornered in my room trying to encourage me to sign a light duty agreement. He was in my room for three hours and the only thing that was missing was a hot lamp in my face. Scenario after scenario he always came to a final warning, sign the agreement or I would have to leave the site. I gave in out of exhaustion and to this day I don’t understand why he put so much pressure on me as later I found out a light duty agreement isnt worth the paper it’s written on or at least for me it wasnt. I guess it’s fair to say that I was very guarded after that kind of pressure on me the same day of my accident. I then started to run into a few more unnerving experiences, a safety guy for Silver Concrete accused me of being dishonest on my WCB medical form. He said I didnt disclose I had a pre-existing injury on my left quadriceps, I told him Ive never experienced a pre-existing injury but simply a condition called ostio-arthritis on my left knee. He tried to press me more but I told him to back off and he did. Then I got asked to write about my experience in the gym the night before the accident and I did write about it along with saying I talked to two guys in the gym that clearly knew I never injured myself in the gym and they would sign statements, never heard about it again. Then I was called in for an interview with the head safety man representing Cenovus Energy, Jay Macdonald and the first words that came out of his mouth was, Hi Dave, as he put his hand out to shake with mine, thank you for signing the light duty agreement, I understand you were a bit nervous signing anything for your employer. In this case I want to assure you that you did the right thing and you have nothing to fear from your employer because if he doesn’t treat you right we will straighten him out, he is accountable to us! You can’t imagine how relieved I was to get such reassurance from this well respected man that worked for Cenovus. I certainly relaxed a bit more after Jay’s comforting words and strong demeanor. Light duty went great after that and I was feeling rather chipper and confident I had nothing to fear and that Cenovus and Jay Macdonald were completely standing with me. What could possibly prevent my full recovery now? I lived in peace until the second morning after my surgery when I was ordered to go back to my room and Ice and elevate my leg until the Cenovus nurse heard different from the orthopedic surgeon. The first and main crime took place at approximately 11am that morning I receive a text from my foreman that stated, Dave, Cenovus wants you to pack your stuff up and get out of camp now! (I have the exact conversation on my phone). This goes against the universal belief of treating a man/woman as you would like to be treated. I honestly would not treat my worst enemy like I was treated. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I was enraged and numb as to what was happening? I have to admit the first thought I had was I was getting railroaded. I took a stand and said I wasnt going anywhere until I got some answers? I let my foreman know I was pissed off and he better get me a new agreement or they will have a situation on their hands. Lots happened in between this moment and me leaving peacefully from camp, but I swear from the moment I felt I was being betrayed until now (this current minute) my blood pressure has been consistently high. I’ve had over 2 years of underlying anxiety that has definitely undermined even my best days, having no closure on a tough situation is a bit like being in hell I’m sure, a feeling of constant torment and irritation. I went through numerous violations of my human rights after this at the hands of Cenovus Energy, Stand Easy Enterprises, WCB Alberta and the many other supposed government support systems (Example, human rights commission) as one after one they turned away from me and told me to go into another dead end. I declare I would not treat anyone like I was treated or more so not treated. An injured person is like an elderly person somewhat fragile and vulnerable. Would any of us neglect our parents like I was neglected? When an injured person goes through a significant injury they want to focus in on their recovery not how to make sure their human rights aren’t being violated. How were my human rights violated, is railroading someone off you’re camp with no explanation a fair way to treat an injured and recovering person? If I had of left on my own accord and Cenovus had washed their hands of me by saying I left camp on my own accord, how would my leg and my future look. Let’s come back to the facts. My employer broke the light duty and forced me to settle for a lesser wage or I would have had to pack my stuff and leave his camp with no support from WCB, yes they would have cut me off as my caseworker made that very clear. By then and with future experiences, WCB took my employers side at every turn and ignored several cries for help from me and didn’t even have the courtesy to take any kind of a stand for me. Again is this treating others as we would like to be treated? Arent they paid to look after all parties’ interests, the employer, employee and their involvement of acting like a mediator? My employer was telling direct lies as to my character and I would not even have known it unless I got the requested transcripts of his and my conversations with my caseworker. ( I did however feel he must have been saying something because of the coldness I felt from my caseworker). The lies were deformation of character arent they? Is it not a crime to not treat people equally in a government position like theirs( WCB’s), it’s constitutional to protect an injured person isn’t it, not to push it off on the injured worker who will in most cases be in an extremely vulnerable position. Yes according to one of the highest principles in the constitution I was not being treated as they would like to be treated and therefore they were violating my human rights. There were way more signs of abuse and neglect that took place. If a full investigation or class action law suit was even considered I think there would be some big surprises in going through that process and it wouldnt take much to see something was more than amiss. I mean this stuff was all done in the open with witnesses with a lot of incriminating evidence, can you imagine the stuff that got hidden. I wonder if the hazard assessments still exist that clearly warned Cenovus staff to change the faulty stairs, what about the people who got fired? How about Neil Dagonheart of Stand Easy, piping a message to me that he was ten steps ahead of me. Is it a co-incidence that he is no longer at least the visible owner of Stand Easy Enterprises? Another example of the abuse of power is the people that got fired that had key ties to my situation and one saying he would put his job on the line for me and he was warned that his job was somehow on the line unless he could get me under control, check into it, I’m very curious to get his take on why he was fired. These are real people with families that I would bet money on if questioned were not treated with decency and respect. The owner of Stand Easy was telling my Co workers I left camp because I refused to do physiotherapy and WCB cut me off? Certainly an effective way to defuse a possibly volatile situation, I know my co-workers liked me and if knew the depth of what I was going through would have stood up for me in rebellion as they were close to walking off the job just after my accident for some sort of personal attack on their characters. These scoundrels proved themselves capable of owning a label of classless and irresponsible and that’s being nice. Cenovus’s Integrity man, Bill Neary, said they don’t hold people on their site accountable for abusing their workers, I guess that’s because they never held themselves accountable, the whole thing stunk real bad and continues to give off a foul odor. In closing I went through about six months of counselling to try and get closure on my dilemma and find justice. The constant stress of not knowing weather my injured leg would cause me to slow down or stop working my business all together in the future, has been very un-nerving as I’ve missed several days of work and my pleasures in running as a result from an imbalanced lower body from my still weak left quadricepts. I took a fall down some stairs a month ago working for some customers by installing a hand rail on their stairwell. They heard me fall and came to my aid to find me at the bottom of the stairs shaking my head in tears as my knee gave out half way down the stairs. Lets just say I broke another part of my body? Would WCB Alberta covered me, the answer is a clear NO! They would have likely called it an unrelated accident and body part. As far as I’m concerned all the responsibility for the treatment I endured falls in the lap of the Cenovus Energies CEO and board members. END OF STORY!
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 15:39:40 +0000
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