Let’s say an employee slips and falls in your shop. Do you a.) tell them to shake it off, or b.) send them straight to the doctor or urgent care on your dime?
Always choose “b,” according to William Ferreira, attorney at law for Automotive Defense Specialists, who splits time between Los Angeles and San Francisco offices. Ferreira is in a good position to advise quick lube and quick maintenance shop owners because, in addition to being a legal expert, he knows the lay of the land firsthand. In high school, he took auto shop, and from there he worked his way through college and law school by clocking in at a quick lube on the weekend and a tire shop during the week.
The legal expert adds, “You may spend a few hundred dollars to send an employee to the doctor or urgent care, but that’s pennies compared to what can happen if you don’t take injuries seriously. That’s why you have liability insurance to cover general (expenses like doctors’ fees).”
“My advice is to get ahead of accidents,” Ferreira states. “Send them straight to the doctor. If they need a referral for X-rays, get it. And then document everything.”
He continues, “Otherwise, their first call is going to be to an ‘accident attorney’ who will send your employee to a team-friendly doctor who will find mysterious ailments and the proverbial soft tissue damage to increase possible payouts. Better to have the initial diagnosis to prevent (the) overzealous tactics of many plaintiff’s attorneys.”
Aside from being proactive the moment an accident happens, how exactly does a quick lube document everything?
One important way, according to Ferreira, is to have a written employee manual or handbook where your shop’s policies and procedures are clearly outlined. And then make it mandatory for each new hire to read and sign the handbook before their first day on the job.
“The acknowledgment should state they read and understood the policies and procedures and were provided the opportunity to ask questions if anything was unclear,” he says. “You also must enforce it (and) write up employees for non-compliance.”
The following no-nonsense basics are examples of some critical points an employee manual should contain.
When a technician is in the pit, for instance, after the oil goes in and before the motor is started up, the tech must first call out that all systems are go for engine ignition. Another extremely simple and effective mandate for shops to put in their employee manuals is that if oil spills—and every shop owner knows it inevitably will—employees are required to stop what they’re doing immediately and clean it up. Otherwise, slick oil on the floor is an accident waiting to happen.
Nightly cleanup of a quick lube is also critically important to mandate in the employee handbook. As Ferreira says, “The night before have your employees remove all mats, wash them, and put them back. This must be done before any lube work begins the next morning. Then, if these steps don’t happen and an employee falls, it’s because they violated a policy in the manual.”
Another super-simple yet critical employee handbook mandate Ferreira suggests is this: “Employees must be told to wear the right shoes. This is important because, again, oil is very slippery.”
If an on-the-job accident ever lands a shop owner in court, enforced policies and procedures in the employee manual, like the examples above, will help keep the shop safe from the “gross negligence” denial an (insurance) carrier will try to use to deny coverage, Ferreira says. It will also shift some liability to the employee for contributing to their own injuries.
Aside from having your employees read and sign a handbook, shop owners need to do some documenting of their own, the legal expert says. “Get immediate statements from all employees present, pull all camera recordings, take pictures of the area, drug and alcohol test the (injured) employee immediately, and have everything documented in case it gets ugly.”
Then, if needed, choose legal representation that has specific insight into the automotive industry.
“A judge and jury may not understand anything about automotive technology … so I’m translating automotive technology into a language that a judge or jury can understand,” Ferreira closes.
