Back injury often leads to hostility from co-workers
People suffering on-the-job back injuries often face hostility or indifference when they return to work, according to the results of a new study. The negative effects may be even worse if the worker is female or a minority.
The study was conducted by Lee Strunin, MD, and Leslie Boden, MD, of Boston University School of Public Health in Massachusetts. The results were published recently in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (2000; 38:373-384). The researchers interviewed 204 workers in Florida who had developed back injuries at work in 1990, including whites, blacks, and Hispanics in three age groups. The workers were questioned about their attempts to return to work after their injuries.
Workers received a wide range of responses upon returning to work. In the most welcoming type of response, "the employer wants the worker to return and provides a work environment that is flexible to the injured worker," the researchers say. About half of workers reported that they were treated this way, and those workers felt valued as employees.
The other half of workers experienced "employer indifference or hostility" when returning to work after a back injury. Some employers gave returning workers a "business-as-usual" response, making no adjustments and expecting the worker to do the job as if nothing had happened. The researchers say workers facing this kind of return felt undervalued and perceived their employers as "not caring whether they stay or leave."
Still others greeted returning workers with a more hostile approach. These workers face what they see as active hostility. Many workers were soon terminated and thought that "the employer was looking for an excuse to fire them."
"A substantial number of minority and female workers believe that they suffer discrimination after they are injured," the researchers say. They found that white males were the most likely to be given light-duty work and the most likely to return to their pre-injury jobs.
Black and Hispanic workers were more likely to be employed in jobs that they could not perform after back injuries, and so tended to bear greater economic losses than white workers. Women were more likely than men to remain unemployed five years after being injured, likewise experiencing a greater financial impact.
The researchers conclude that "Injured racial and/or ethnic minorities and women may experience a double dose of discrimination: first in the employment process and then after they become injured."
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