When Nyrie Stringer was injured after falling from the back of her supermarket delivery truck onto bitumen, her boss's reaction was not what she had hoped for.

"I was lying in the middle of the road and my boss was worried that her day was ruined," she said.

"It was a case of 'Oh why did you do this to me? You've made it so difficult, today is so hard already and now we've got to deal with you injuring yourself'."

Ms Stringer said in addition to the pain from her injury, she soon had to deal with the "humiliation" of having her male manager aged in his 60s sit in on an appointment with a company doctor that her employer insisted she attend.

While her injuries were not as serious as she feared — and doctors at Fiona Stanley Hospital said her strained and bruised back and neck would likely recover with rest — she said her employer, whom she did not want to name, had other ideas.

'I felt backed into a corner'

Ms Stringer said after she lodged a claim for workers' compensation, the company put her on light duties tidying the store instead of giving her time off, and sent her to a company doctor.

"So I went to the work doctor, I had to give this person who I've never met in my life my medical history with the store manager present, which they said had to happen because they had to witness what the doctor was saying," she said.

"I didn't know that I had any input or any choice in this.

"I felt very backed into a corner and signed off on the forms because they said I had to.

Ms Stringer believes she would have been given time off work by her own doctor. ( Flickr: Alex Proimos )

"And of course you just do it because you don't want to lose your job, you don't want to cause trouble."

She said the doctor put her on a return-to-work plan and told her to take paracetamol for her pain.

She continued to perform nine- and 10-hour shifts tidying the store, but said although she was on restricted duties — meaning no heavy lifting or repetitive bending and lifting — these activities were impossible to avoid.

Ms Stringer believes the outcome would have been different, and her recovery faster, had she been allowed to see her own GP, whom she believed would have been given her time off to rest and ensured physiotherapy was covered as part of her claim.

"It was so embarrassing … it was humiliating and all this time I could have been seeing my own GP," Ms Stringer said.

Potential privacy breaches

According to Unions WA, Ms Stringer's experience is not unique.

Assistant secretary Owen Whittle said there had been an upturn in the number of workers complaining about being sent to company doctors, and of company representatives attending medical appointments with injured workers.

"This is something that should never be occurring," he said.

Owen Whittle says company reps should never attend employees' medical appointments. ( ABC News: Rebecca Carmody )

"There is no good reason for an employer representative to be in attendance during a medical appointment.

"The only reason someone will be inside a medical appointment taking notes is to potentially use that information later down the track against the worker.

"The kind of privacy breaches that could occur and the compromising of care in these situations is just too great."

Unions WA recently put out a survey to its members, asking about their experiences in the workers' compensation system.

Of the 1,052 respondents, almost one in eight had made a claim for compensation.

Of those, 11 per cent reported that their employer had sought to be or was represented at a medical assessment for a claim.

A total of 16 per cent reported feeling pressured by their employer or their insurer, 12 per cent described the experience as stressful and not worth it, and 10 per cent claimed they felt bullied and stigmatised after lodging a claim.

Company doctors 'give employers certainty': CCI

Unions WA said the survey results strengthened its argument for greater protections to be written into legislation, including ending the practice of employer and insurance representatives attending medical appointments with injured workers.

Ms Wilmott supports the use of company doctors. ( ABC News: Eliza Laschon )

Industrial Relations Minister Bill Johnston said the issue would be considered as part of a review of workers' compensation laws, due early next year.

However, Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Deidre Wilmott defended the use of company doctors "to give employers certainty about what tasks the employee can and cannot carry out safely and what is the best pathway to support their return to work as efficiently as possible".

"This is best achieved by a company doctor or local medical centre — family or personal GP's can be difficult to get an immediate appointment with, and company doctors who are familiar with the workplace and nature of work may be able to better understand the occupational context on an injury," she said.