From Raw Story:
Fast food giant McDonald’s has denied workers compensation benefits to a minimum wage employee who was shot when he ejected a customer who had been beating a woman inside the restaurant.
A representative of the administrator for McDonald’s workers compensation plan explained that “we have denied this claim in its entirety as it is our opinion that Mr. Haskett’s injuries did not arise out of or within the course and scope of his employment.”
Nigel Haskett, then aged 21, was working at a McDonald’s in Little Rock, Arkansas last summer when he saw a patron, later identified as Perry Kennon, smacking a woman in the face. A surveillance video of the incident, which had been posted to YouTube, was taken down after McDonald’s charged copyright infringement, but according to written descriptions of the video, Haskett tackled Kennon, threw him out, and then stood by the door to prevent him from reentering.
Kennon went to his car, returned with a gun, and shot Haskett multiple times. Haskett staggered back into the restaurant and collapsed.
He has over $300,000 in medical bills. Three takeaway points here:
1) McDonalds is scum.
2) We need a better copyright system. (The clip is now available online, as the story says, because a news station broadcast it — but that was luck. What legitimate creative purpose is served by letting McDonalds claim copyright over that clip?)
3) We need a better health care system.
Curtsy: The Debate Link.
UPDATE: If you’d like to let McDonalds know what you think about this, here’s a contact page.
Does McDonalds want the bad PR from this incident, as some sort of challenge?
Otherwise, I can think of no rational reason for their inhumane decision for an employee who literally put his life on the line.
Does McDonalds want the bad PR from this incident, as some sort of challenge?
This was my initial WTF??? reaction when I first saw this the other week.
But then I realized they will suffer no negative consequences from this. The number of people who will stop eating at McDonald’s because of this are negligible. They will suffer no dent in their profits. Why do the right thing if it doesn’t get you anything in return?
So, where’re the contact details on how to ring up/email and badger McDonald’s about this? It’s pretty rare that an outrage posted on a blog involves someone international enough for ME to yell at.
In other news, two plus two equals four. (No, that’s not a dig at you or this blog. I’m just frustrated that the above needs pointing out.)
Seconded. And I’m never eating there again. Ugh.
I’ve updated the post with contact info — good idea.
I enthusiastically agree on 2 and 3, but I’m not sure about 1. Why should McDonalds be paying the medical bills here? Because they have money and nobody else is paying? See point 3. It would be nice for McDonalds to be supportive of someone who heroically did the right thing, but it isn’t really their business to be supporting heroes (and probably shouldn’t be; that’s the sort of thing that is really better done by the government).
Or is it because McDonalds doesn’t treat its employees well enough in general, so they should try to make up for it by covering this one employee who did something exceptional? I can’t help but suspect that that’s also part of what people are thinking here, but if that’s the problem, this seems to be the wrong place to confront it; if McDonalds should be treating their employees in general better, probably that means they should be paying more, offering insurance to more of their employees, or something of the sort. Being less quick to contest workman’s compensation claims is probably pretty far down on the list of priorities as far as what would make their workers in general better off.
Hey, guess what – any retail outlet that I know of has the same policies. If you are an employee of McDonalds/Burger King/Target/Wal-Mart/etc. I believe you’ll find that corporate policy is that if this kind of thing happens you a) call the cops and b) do nothing else.
I haven’t done a search, but I am pretty sure that this is not the first time that I’ve heard of something like this. Forget about not paying your health care costs – people have been fired over this kind of thing. I don’t know for a fact why, but I’m going to take a flyer and figure that it’s an issue of liability. McD’s and the rest (again, nothing special about them in this case) probably worry that should this turn sour and the employee gets killed the survivors will sue them for the loss of life, loss of income, etc. If they pay the associated costs for actions such as this by the employee without question then they will have assumed approval of and thus responsibility for their actions.
What happens if Kennon had been a lousy shot and an otherwise uninvolved person gets killed? Think their survivors will sue McDonalds on the grounds that if the employee had minded their own business they wouldn’t have gotten shot? Think the jury might decide teh eeeevil “fast food giant” McDonalds can afford it and award a huge sum to the complainant?
That’s corporate thinking, folks, and our litigious society and propensity to see corporations as evil and inordinately and unjustifiably wealthy feeds that kind of thinking. The bottom line is that this employee took a risk completely on his or her own and McDonalds is not and should not be legally liable for the outcome. I’ll further guess that if they pay the money out then they risk BECOMING legally liable for future outcomes.
What would I like to see? McD’s corporately deny paying this out (as they have). And then the corporate directors and top level managers reach into their own well-compensated pockets and personally make it good – even if they can’t therefore count it as a tax deduction. You get 10 of these guys together and $30,000 each is pocket change for them. Let the corporation act like a corporation and the human beings act like human beings.
I can probably count the number of times I’ve eaten at McDonalds in the past 5 years on one hand so they won’t be terribly sad to lose mu business but I did write them a letter and am sharing this post with everyone I know on twitter, facebook, etc.
In other news I found a facebook group with information on donations. I don’t know how legit it is but the address they list is
Twin City Bank
Nigel Haskett Appreciation Fund
P.O. 16270
Little Rock, AR 72231
RonF, your response seriously bums me out. “Letting the corporations act like corporations” might be the most convenient thing for those in power, but is that really how we want to organize our society? If I’m being physically beaten in a public place, I don’t want people who are capable of helping me to stand aside and “mind their own business” cause they’re worried about money (their own or their employers’).
That? That’s a world where money is more important than people, and while, yes, that’s probs the world we’re all living it, this seems like a moment when we can step back and ask if it’s really the world we *want* (and recognize that “letting the corporations act like corporations” is part of what got us there).
Given that most of their workers don’t have health insurance but probably make too much to qualify for Medicaid, I disagree with this.
That gets back to the need for changes to our health care system. If we had universal health care, this guy wouldn’t have to fight with McDonald’s over whether his injuries fall under workman’s comp.
But given that we’re not there yet and workman’s comp is the only mechanism he has to get his bills paid and that many other employees may be in similar situations that just aren’t as dramatic, I think it’s a pretty big issue.
Edit: I agree it would be better if they just provided health insurance to all their employees, but I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
Agree with RonF, sadly. McDonald’s is making damned sure that this isn’t considered something that the employee did in the line of duty, for good legal reason. Every company has this policy – sit out and call the cops.
That being said, they _have_ the money, and know this is a PR nightmare… so they should reach into their pockets and pay for it, but _outside_ of worker’s comp.
I’d say the same thing if the kid was a customer, not an employee. They’ve got the money, it happened in their shop, and the guy was a hero. They’d do well to help him out.
Every company has this policy in writing. I’m familiar with a number of Industrial Commission investigations in Arizona (that’s like our OSHA at the state level) in which what managers instructed employees verbally was pretty different from what was in writing. All those cases involved shoplifting – the written policy was to not stop shoplifters and the verbal instruction was to stop them if they weren’t armed or not armed with a gun, then when the employee was beaten into a permanent vegetative state with a hammer (yes, this was an actual case), the convenience store wouldn’t pay the workman’s comp claim.
So that involves the company losing merchandise and therefore money, not customers being physically harmed – in the case of a customer being assaulted, there would not have been a strong motivation to have a different unofficial policy – but I think there is a bit of hypocrisy here.
I’m not saying I’m in favor of what McDonald’s Corporation (HQ’d about 8 miles from where I’m writing this) is doing in this case. But I don’t see how the people running it can rationally do anything else given what the laws are and how they are interpreted. If their policy is “Go ahead and be a hero, we’ll cover you,” then they open themselves up for massive lawsuits when things go south.
No, I don’t want a world where people stand around and don’t offer assistance because they’re worried that their company won’t pay if they get injured. But we don’t have that world. Someone DID jump in and help and didn’t worry that McD’s wouldn’t cover his medical expenses. That IS the world we live in.
Just because McDonald’s corporation hasn’t paid for his medical care doesn’t mean it won’t get paid. My guess is that the health care providers involved will waive or discount some of their fees and that there will be significant private donations (especially after all this publicity). We’ll see.
O.K., let’s talk about a legislative solution to this.
Scenario: Bernice Bad Girl walks into a McDonald’s and starts pistol-whipping her ex-husband who was sitting there eating a Big Mac. Ed Employee jumps Bernice. Bernice shoots at Ed, misses, and hits Charlie Customer. Charlie dies. Charlie’s current wife sues McDonald’s on the premise that if Ed had kept out of the way Charlie would have not been shot. Would you favor legislation that would hold McDonald’s harmless and prevent this suit? Even if McDonald’s had a policy that did NOT forbid Ed from acting in this fashion? Even if McDonald’s had a policy that ENCOURAGED Ed to act in this fashion?
What if Ed was packing himself, took a shot at Bernice and missed and HE was the one who had killed Charlie? What if Bernice was not beating up her ex but was in fact just shooting the place up because her husband had died from eating too many Big Macs and had already killed two people when Ed shot at her and missed?
I contacted McD’s and received this response.
Hello [my name]:
Thank you for taking the time to contact McDonald’s to let us know your thoughts on this unfortunate incident.
This restaurant is an independently owned McDonald’s and an insurance claim is still pending. As such, it is not appropriate for us to comment on it, however, the owner/operator, Ray Nosler, has shared the following statement publicly about this case:
February 24, 2009
My highest priority is the safety and security of my customers and employees.
I stand behind Nigel Haskett. I believe he acted as a Good Samaritan. Concerning the critical matter of his medical expenses, it is important to note that the Arkansas Worker’s Compensation Commission ultimately decides the outcome of his claim. As part of this process, Nigel’s case will be presented to a Worker’s Compensation judge, who will review all of the facts and decide on the case’s merits.
McDonald’s supports Nigel’s claim, and fully anticipates the judge in this process will find in Nigel’s favor. As a safeguard, if for some reason his claim is denied, and other insurance options are unavailable, I intend to cover the cost of his medical expenses.
I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do for Nigel.
Again, thank you for contact McDonald’s.
Jessica
McDonald’s Customer Response Center
ref#:5827283
@sanabituranima
Glad you actually contacted McDonalds. Even though they aren’t doing the right thing, it is good to see that the individual owner is doing the right thing. I hope that he isn’t just doing this for PR, but even if he is, at least he is doing the right thing.
@RonF
I would imagine that you will be proved correct.
Honestly, it pleased me that McDonald’s refused to pay his bills.
They’re not Mcdonald’s’ to pay, they’re his. He acted out of line with company policy, and as such, he got hurt. If he hadn’t gotten hurt, he’d have lost his job for breaking company policy in such a stupid, stupid, public manner. As it is, what happened to him is exactly what most retail establishments make these rules to PREVENT.
So, to summarise:
McDonalds told employee not to do a stupid thing.
Employee did a stupid thing
Employee got hurt because he did a stupid thing.
Employee wants McDonalds to pay for his medical bills.
McDonalds told employee to go fuck himself.
I see no error on the part of McDonalds, and if they give in, I will lose more respect for them than I had in the first place(Which is admittedly not much)
Currency is very bad for a species such as yourselves. It prevents growth to the society as whole. You human beings will hopefully learn in your next few lifetimes that currency is not the way to promote human development. Don’t worry though, you are young, fresh and full of potential. It will all happen in due time.
Maybe the problem is that the US actually allow those kinds of lawsuits? Or that medical bills cost this much?
I dunno, here if I was bitten by a dog, I would be *unable* to sue for millions. I’d be able to sue for, at best 7,000$, if I had cause (without having to pay a lawyer though).
Also, emergency bills to save my life from gunshot wound? Completely free, that’s what taxes are for here.
Schala @21: This isn’t a lawsuit. It’s a worker’s comp claim. The whole point of worker’s comp is that you can’t sue your employer; instead you simply file a claim which is paid for by their insurance.
It is also very routine for an employer to try and fight a perfectly legitimate worker’s comp claim, because that may end up costing money in higher premiums – particularly if the employee was injured because of something that’s an ongoing problem at the workplace (like poor safety equipment or a lack of training) that may lead to more than one injury.