Exposure to toxic substances.
Because many convenience stores sell gasoline, clerks are exposed to fuel spills and fumes when they clean or service gas pumps. They’re also exposed to toxic cleaning fluids inside the store. Inhalation of such substances can cause respiratory and other problems.
Handling inventory.
Lifting and moving heavy boxes, stocking shelves, and organizing inventory can cause damage to muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints in the shoulders, neck, and back.
Accidental impact.
Heavy products like glass bottles of soft drinks or alcohol might fall off a high shelf and hit an employee’s head or be dropped on a foot. When working outdoors in the parking lot, a convenience store employee is sometimes in danger of being struck by a moving car. Broken bones, cuts, brain injuries, or spinal damage can result.
Opening product packaging.
Cutting boxes open with box cutters or other sharp implements can lead to deep lacerations that might require stitches. In the most serious cases, a finger might even be lost.
Using dangerous equipment.
Meat slicers, hot liquid dispensers, cooking equipment, pizza ovens, and other potentially dangerous equipment are possible sources of serious cuts and burns.
Biohazards.
Interaction with customers can mean exposure to bacteria, viruses, and air- and blood-borne pathogens that can make an employee sick.
Repetitive motion.
Using a cash register for hours, daily cleaning tasks, shelf stocking, and similar duties can result in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), rotator cuff injury, tendonitis, “trigger finger,” and other repetitive motion injuries.
Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim
If you’re injured or become ill in one of the ways described above, you should take the following steps in order to seek fair workers’ comp benefits:
- Report your injury immediately to your supervisor, preferably in writing, with photographs to document what happened, where, and how. (If there is video footage of your accident from an in-store camera, your attorney will know how to obtain it.) You actually have 90 days to report, but you should do it right away.
- File a claim with the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission (SCWCC) by submitting Form 50 from the SCWCC website. You have two years to file your claim, but you should do so as soon as possible. Any delay in reporting or filing could be used by your employer’s insurance company as a rationale to deny your claim.
- Visit a physician recommended by your employer’s insurer, not your own doctor, and follow that physician’s advice and treatment plan to the letter.
- Keep all medical appointments, retain receipts and documentation of all treatments, and keep a journal of your recovery.
- If your claim is denied, the insurer is slow to approve necessary treatments, or you’re expected to come back to work before you’re ready, contact a workers’ compensation attorney.
Your attorney can help you appeal a denied claim by asking for an informal conference, requesting a hearing before the SCWCC, or requesting a commission review.
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