I was an assistant manager with the above named company from September until April. During that period of time, I was subjected to a great deal of personal abuse by a general manager named Lisa Fraley.
In January I fell onto my left knee in the walk-in cooler. I had considerable difficulty walking. I asked for an injury report to be filed a couple of days later, and that's when my problems began.
I was interviewed by the district manager, Janice Helms (the half-sister of Ms. Fraley), about what happened. Ms. Fraley and Ms. Helms reviewed the security recording and wrote me up because of some minor horseplay earlier in the evening. They then accused me of lying about injuring my knee because, according to Ms. Helms, I already had weak knees.
I wouldn't let things drop and was informed that if I persisted with the workers comp claim, the company would have an insurance investigator investigate the entire claim. I said fine because I used to work as an insurance investigator and knew that I had done nothing wrong. I was then told that if I didn't drop the matter, I would face other consequences.
I was later contacted by the company's insurance carrier, and I informed them that I was basically told that if I didn't drop the matter, I would be fired. They offered no help. Neither did the Arkansas Workman's Compensation Office, which NEVER returned any of my phone calls.
Since I left the company, I have tried to contact the franchise owner, Danny Gilliand, several times with no success. To date, nothing has been done about my knee, and I still have problems walking on it.
It seems that this company has placed itself above state and federal workers' comp law.
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