I spoke with a really nice woman the other day who works as a nurse at a north suburban hospital who hurt her back while lifting a patient. She has gotten some medical care already but is going to need surgery.

She explained to me that she loves her job and has been working at the same hospital for 7 years. Her boss is great and she loves her coworkers. She has a lot of vacation days piled up and was planning on using those after surgery since she is going to be off work for a while. She doesn’t want to make things contentious at work.

This conversation immediately brought to mind a few important points this woman should know. I explained the following to her in so many words:

  1. Filing a workers compensation claim is not a lawsuit. It is a claim for benefits that you are entitled to. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act is in place to protect workers.
  2. No matter how much you love your job, you need to look out for yourself after a job injury. Your employer may be great, but the insurance company they use for workers compensation will be looking out for their interests, not yours.
  3. You don’t need to (and you shouldn’t) use your hard-earned vacation and sick days for the time off work while you are recovering from surgery. All the time off should be paid by workers comp.
  4. You should have 100% of your medical bills paid with no co-pays or out-of-pocket expenses. You also shouldn’t have to worry if a doctor is in-network or not.
  5. When you are all better, you’ll be entitled to a settlement that would likely be around the mid-five figures. That settlement will be tax-free.

The key takeaway from this woman’s situation that applies to all workers in Illinois is to never use vacation days or other PTO like vacation days to cover your time off work when injured. The law is there to protect workers and compensate you for the time you medically have to take off.

If you did happen to use some vacation time and are still getting treatment or recovering, we can likely get them back as long as you have a doctor’s note saying that you are off work due to your injury. Contact us at 312-346-5578 for a free, confidential consultation with a lawyer.