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Employment Law - Workers' Compensation

Workers' compensation laws are designed to ensure that employees who are injured or disabled on the job are provided with fixed monetary awards, eliminating the need for litigation. These laws also provide benefits for dependents of those workers who are killed because of work-related accidents or illnesses. Some laws also protect employers and fellow workers by limiting the amount an injured employee can recover from an employer and by eliminating the liability of co-workers in most accidents. State Workers' compensation statutes establish this framework for most employment.

Workers' compensation benefits vary from state to state, but generally include payments for medical care, partial compensation payments (varies), temporary and permanent disability payments, transportation reimbursement for specific injury related travel and vocational rehabilitation.

Workers' compensation is a type of insurance that nearly all employers are required by federal law to provide for their employees. This obligation applies to both private and public employers regardless of the number of persons employed. It makes no difference whether an employer is characterized as for-profit, non-profit or as a charitable organization. In each case, workers' compensation insurance must be provided to all employees.

Most employers buy coverage by paying premiums to an insurance company, which then pays benefits to the injured employee. Some employers are self-insured, or self-funded, which means that the employer pays benefits directly to the employee and covers the costs from a "fund" established for this purpose.

Very few employees are excluded from coverage. Major exceptions include the Federal government, as federal statutes are limited to federal employees or those workers employed in some significant aspect of interstate commerce.

The Federal Employment Liability Act (FELA), while not a workers' compensation statute, provides that railroads engaged in interstate commerce are liable for injuries to their employees if they have been negligent.

The Merchant Marine Act (the Jones Act) provides seamen with the same protection from employer negligence as FELA provides railroad workers.

Congress enacted the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA) to provide workers' compensation to specified employees of private maritime employers. The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs administers the act.

The Black Lung Benefits Act provides compensation for miners suffering from "black lung" (pneumoconiosis). The Act requires liable mine operators to pay disability payments and establishes a fund administered by the Secretary of Labor providing disability payments to miners where the mine operator is unknown or unable to pay. The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs regulates the administration of the Act.

Individual questions about workers' compensation issues should be directed to that person's state workers' compensation office.

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