Workers’ compensation is an insurance system that provides monetary benefits to employees who sustain injuries as a direct result of their jobs. Recently, controversial legal decisions regarding COVID-related workplace injuries have hindered health care workers from obtaining equal protection while on the job.
Workers’ compensation agreements benefit both employers and employees. The financial compensation helps employees cover their medical bills, but also ensures employees don’t sue their employers.
Workplace injuries can include work-related accidents such as lifting or falling. Additionally, occupational diseases that develop following repeated exposure to workplace equipment or materials are also covered by workers’ compensation.
However, some injuries that take place at the job site do not count as workplace injuries. Those include psychiatric disorders, intentional or self-inflicted injuries, and injuries that occur during policy-violating activities like drug or alcohol consumption.
Employers recommend that workers report their injuries as soon as possible to qualify for compensation benefits. Usually, workers need to report their injuries within 30 days. A detailed description of the workplace injury must include the incident’s date and time, injury type, and cause of injury. After notifying the employer, the worker can file an official workers’ compensation claim.
In the United States, workers’ compensation regulations are government mandated, but they can vary from one state to another. For example, penalties for withholding workers’ compensation include fines and jail time, depending on the state.
In Illinois, employers who do not pay the required compensation are fined a minimum of $10,000. However, in Pennsylvania, such employers are charged with a third-degree felony, which can put them at risk of up to 7 years in prison.
Recently, lawsuits addressing workers’ compensation in different states have been the topic of debate. In June of 2021, the California Senate rejected a bill facilitating workers’ compensation for health care employees exposed to COVID-19.
In 2020, the California Legislature affirmed that workers’ compensation covers COVID-19 injuries when it passed a law recognizing the respiratory disease as a work-related injury. Senator Dave Cortese proposed a bill to establish this law as a permanent regulation beyond its 2023 expiry date.
Cortese aimed to provide equal protection to hospital workers, but business groups disagreed. Policy advocates from the California Chamber of Commerce argued that such a law would significantly burden a health care system that is already struggling as a result of the pandemic.
Similarly, in Missouri, EMT staff member Liz Smith was denied her workers’ compensation claim after she was hospitalized due to COVID-19. Smith’s health was gravely affected by a severe case of the virus that she contracted at her workplace. Currently waiting for a lung transplant, she has developed serious respiratory complications, including necrotizing pneumonia and persistent bacterial infections after being discharged from the hospital. The city of St. Louis refused to accept her workers’ compensation claim despite an existing emergency rule. Enforced at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the rule states that first responders who get infected with COVID-19 are assumed to have contracted it while on the job, qualifying them for workers’ compensation.
Applying the emergency rule resulted in major financial consequences. In 2020, Missouri approved over $300 million dollars for COVID-related workers’ compensation claims. Smith has appealed the city’s decision and awaits the reconsideration process.
Workers’ compensation agreements benefit both employers and employees. The financial compensation helps employees cover their medical bills, but also ensures employees don’t sue their employers.
Workplace injuries can include work-related accidents such as lifting or falling. Additionally, occupational diseases that develop following repeated exposure to workplace equipment or materials are also covered by workers’ compensation.
However, some injuries that take place at the job site do not count as workplace injuries. Those include psychiatric disorders, intentional or self-inflicted injuries, and injuries that occur during policy-violating activities like drug or alcohol consumption.
Employers recommend that workers report their injuries as soon as possible to qualify for compensation benefits. Usually, workers need to report their injuries within 30 days. A detailed description of the workplace injury must include the incident’s date and time, injury type, and cause of injury. After notifying the employer, the worker can file an official workers’ compensation claim.
In the United States, workers’ compensation regulations are government mandated, but they can vary from one state to another. For example, penalties for withholding workers’ compensation include fines and jail time, depending on the state.
In Illinois, employers who do not pay the required compensation are fined a minimum of $10,000. However, in Pennsylvania, such employers are charged with a third-degree felony, which can put them at risk of up to 7 years in prison.
Recently, lawsuits addressing workers’ compensation in different states have been the topic of debate. In June of 2021, the California Senate rejected a bill facilitating workers’ compensation for health care employees exposed to COVID-19.
In 2020, the California Legislature affirmed that workers’ compensation covers COVID-19 injuries when it passed a law recognizing the respiratory disease as a work-related injury. Senator Dave Cortese proposed a bill to establish this law as a permanent regulation beyond its 2023 expiry date.
Cortese aimed to provide equal protection to hospital workers, but business groups disagreed. Policy advocates from the California Chamber of Commerce argued that such a law would significantly burden a health care system that is already struggling as a result of the pandemic.
Similarly, in Missouri, EMT staff member Liz Smith was denied her workers’ compensation claim after she was hospitalized due to COVID-19. Smith’s health was gravely affected by a severe case of the virus that she contracted at her workplace. Currently waiting for a lung transplant, she has developed serious respiratory complications, including necrotizing pneumonia and persistent bacterial infections after being discharged from the hospital. The city of St. Louis refused to accept her workers’ compensation claim despite an existing emergency rule. Enforced at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the rule states that first responders who get infected with COVID-19 are assumed to have contracted it while on the job, qualifying them for workers’ compensation.
Applying the emergency rule resulted in major financial consequences. In 2020, Missouri approved over $300 million dollars for COVID-related workers’ compensation claims. Smith has appealed the city’s decision and awaits the reconsideration process.
