The general belief is that when a worker gets hurt on the job, he or she receives company benefits for it. However, some injury scenarios disqualify an employee from receiving workers’ compensation benefits.
Workers’ compensation kicks in when a job or function of the job results in an injury. It is important to understand the difference between a qualified work injury and one that may see an employee footing the bill.
A fight between workers
People are bound to argue, and some may prove more prone to anger than others. When workers get into a scuffle on the job site or in the office, it may not rise to a workers’ compensation incident. Unless an employer is somehow encouraging workers to fight, there is no negligence that falls to the company. As such, any harm done during this type of activity does not fall on the workers’ compensation carrier to cover.
A car crash during lunch
Lunchtime may prove a respite for many employees as they take that time to run errands or just escape the job for an hour. Unfortunately, some participants may find themselves in a car crash either on their way to or from lunch. Injuries in a car crash range from none to catastrophic, so financial ramifications also vary. Even though a person was coming to or from work, it does not mean the crash qualifies for workers’ comp benefits. The only time a car accident does is when a worker is performing a job duty while out of the office or running an errand for a boss. Otherwise, it falls to the automobile insurer for coverage.
An employer is not always on the hook for a workplace injury. It is critical to know when something may meet eligibility for workers’ compensation and when it does not.
