Employee insurance rights

[~clover~]

Hoping for some info about a friends rights to insurance.

6 or so months ago she was involved in an armed hold up at the golf club she works at. It was a traumatic enough experience for her & she's still suffering anxiety, though she returned to work after the amount of time work cover allowed. She's just been to her gp & was given another 3 weeks off because the gp believes she's relapsed.

In the hold up, her keys were taken & her car stolen & burnt out with both her car seats in it & some equipment that belongs to her DD's school. Her insurance had lapsed, so she's not personally covered.

What are her rights here? The club is telling her that the insurance will only cover her for whats inside the car (that hasn't been paid out yet). Am I right to assume her car should be covered too?? She's being fobbed off all over the place & its really affecting her life.

Any advice would be great.

[*Efjay*]

One would think if they are going to cover the contents of her car then the actual car would be covered also! I have no idea though but your poor friend. It sounds like it was a pretty full on situation.

[~clover~]

It was. Only her & another girl were on. I had a hard enough time hearing about it. So hard being on the other side of the country & not physically being there for her.

But I love the fact that the club had new camera's with in a week & have now done renovations & are still putting her off! Its making me wonder if they claimed the girls money & areusing it, or they don't want to claim, because they don't want to cover the excess. I figure if they got their pay out, the girls should've had theirs too. The other girl is out of pocket about $2000 after having to have her locks changed & her iphone taken. They took her keys & hand bag as well.

Neither of them have seen any money, but the manager is saying he'll 'get onto it soon'.

The school needs the money for their equipment back & she can't afford to hand it over to them.

Its just one big mess really & its made harder when she has no idea what she's actually entitled too.

[Chocaholic]

What insurance are you referring to? If it is WorkCover then contact them directly. Otherwise call Fairwork and ask them for assistance.

[sahbear]

What sort of insurance do you think would cover her car?

It wouldn't be WorkCover - it covers injuries in the course of employment - not personal belongings.
The only time they may cover personal belongings in some states is if it was damaged in the course of being injured - eg a ring on a hand that was crushed by a piece of machinery.

Has she asked what sort of insurance they are saying are covering the contents of her car - if not she should ask and call them directly so she has the correct information.

[myturn]

I don't know the answer, but I wondered whether 'victims of crime' could help - at least to link her in with counselling if she isn't doing it already, and they may have some answers perhaps???

I would have thought the school could claim through their own insurance as well..... Bit weird that they are asking her to replace it when it's such a stressful situation for her.

I hope things get resolved for her soon.

[~clover~]

Well I assumed that the business insurance that covers these sort of incedences might cover it. Since the car was only stolen because she was at work.

I have no idea, but my mum owned a business & paid for insurance for over 10 years & she seems to think that she should be entitled too.

Not sure about the school insurance, they're a very very small independant school so they might not have had those particular items covered. As far as I know it was gardening equipment. I will ask though.

She's seeing a phycologist.

[AnyDream]

Ok, so she needs to get some high-level advice on board. This is probably going to require a few phone calls, explaining the situation, etc, so if she's still having issues with trauma/anxiety she might appreciate someone helping her, maybe by sitting with her and making the calls on speakerphone or something like that. So maybe encourage her to get someone (a friend, counsellor, whatever) to help her work through this.

The sorts of organisations that could give her some advice are places like her union (if she's a member this should be the first place she rings, if she's not a member they might be able to give her some general advice); victim's of crime support organisation; women's information and referral centre; or a workers advocacy/information centre. Sorry I don't know what state you're in, but there are these sorts of places in every state and territory, you can usually find them in the front bit of the white pages phone book.

As to the actual insurance, I have no idea. Some states have victims of crime compensation funds, which might turn out to be the way to claim if none of the other insurances cover this situation.

That employer needs a rocket up their bum. Not following this up is not good enough. Even IF they are not required to claim for these losses through their own insurance, they should at the very minimum be providing some information about the support mechanisms that are in place. Especially given that she is very obviously still traumatised.

[~clover~]

Thanks MD, your advice is very much appreciated & I will pass it on. She's in NSW, I'm in WA, so can't be there for her

I'm glad she's done the right thing by going to the gp & not trying to ignore her feelings. She feels like the club is just laughing at her, which is so unfair. They're pretty gutless IMO. They just won't give her a straight answer. Because the gp knows the situation, she doesn't want her to return to work til its all sorted out, because there is enough going on without adding the anxiety of working in the same place on top of it all.

Glad to hear they've upped security, but these things are happening in the area all the time. Security should've been tighter to start with. They shouldn't have been there alone.

Then 000 didn't take her seriously, & hung up before the police or anyone arrived, so they were basically alone not knowing what was happening. Really not handled well at all.

[AnyDream]

Well, I'm glad she's got some good support from the GP then. It would be so much harder if she wasn't getting good medical care.

to you too, lovely lady. I know what it's like to have a good friend suffering on the other side of the country. I'm sure she appreciates she appreciates your support even though you can't be there.

[*Efjay*]

000 hung up?! Far out

[~clover~]

Yep. I didn't get it either. I've had to call them once & they stayed on the line & let me know every few minutes how far away ambo's were. They didn't hang up til the ambo's were there.

[~clover~]

Public liability insurance covers a business or organization against claims should its operations injure a member of the public or damage their property in some way.

??