Articles Posted in Workers’ Rights

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On April 10, 2010, Daniel Coile, 33, went to Shepherd’s Closet, a store, to pick up a desk purchased by his mother. Coile was told that he would need to load the desk into his car by way of a loading dock at the rear of the store.  Shepherd’s Closet or Closet Two is located in Gibson City, Ill.

At the loading dock there was an unsecured railroad tie that went along the face of the dock. While Coile was attempting to load the desk, he placed his left foot on the railroad tie to get closer to the dock, but the tie slid as he lifted the desk causing his left knee to twist.

Coile suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee and required reconstructive surgery and physical therapy. As a result of his injury, Coile was unable to work for 4 months as a deputy sheriff.

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The Illinois Supreme Court has taken a case for consideration dealing with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission as to an employee’s commute from a motel to a job site. The issue in the case is whether the employee is covered for his injuries by the Workers’ Compensation Act when he was on his way from his motel (temporary living quarters) to his job site. The Supreme Court will look at whether the jobsite is linked closely enough to the worker’s employment so that the injuries he suffered in a car accident on the way to work are compensable. 

The law does not usually consider injuries while commuting to or from work as compensable unless the travel is a result or requirement of the job.

In 2006, the plaintiff, Ronald Daugherty of Springfield, Ill., took a temporary pipefitting job with The Venture-Newberg Perini Stone & Webster, which is a contractor working on a nuclear power plant in Cordoba, Ill.,  owned by Exelon Corp.  Daugherty was injured in a car accident on his way to work from his motel. As a result of his injuries, he filed a workers’ compensation claim. 

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A jury in a Southern Illinois federal district court entered a $95 million jury verdict in a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against a retail store and one of its managers by a female employee. Ashley Alford v. Aaron’s Rents, Inc., Richard Moore, et al., 08 cv 00683, included widespread claims of sexual harassment by the store manager and allegations of inaction on behalf of the company itself.

Twenty year-old Ashley Alford worked at Aaron’s, Inc., a nationwide chain that offers rent-to-own appliances and furniture. Alford’s lawsuit claimed that in November 2005 her store manager began calling her degrading pet names, accompanied by inappropriate touching, groping, and pinching. In addition, the store manager, Richard Moore, began giving her gifts, which were accompanied by him stating that he expected some form of sexual acts in return.

After six months of this behavior, Ashley took action by calling the company’s sexual harassment hotline. However, while this did result in the regional supervisor coming to her local store, he failed to take any action against the supervisor. And even worse, the regional supervisor discussed Ashley’s sexual harassment allegations in front of the very supervisor she had filed a complaint against.

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