Workers’ Compensation

This assignment will assess Competency 10: Differentiate among employee welfare programs including Social Security, Workers’ Compensation, and Unemployment Compensation.

Using the information you gathered in Learning Activities 1 and 2 of this learning plan and any additional information you locate using the Internet, compose an essay to distinguish when an employee is covered by Workers’ Compensation or covered by private/public health insurance.

Workers’ Compensation is seen as something of a trade-off because the employer loses several highly successful defenses to the injured employee’s claim (assumption of risk, contributory negligence, and the fellow-servant doctrine); and in return, employers get immunity from suits by the injured employees. For the workers, Workers’ Compensation plans permit relatively easy access to benefits and relatively simple adjudication of disputed claims.

Workers’ Compensation procedures have been left primarily to states to administer, with a few specific exceptions such as railroad workers (covered by the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA)); sailors (covered by the Jones Act); and many other maritime workers (covered by the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act). Workers’ Compensation will always follow a very specific procedure in order for injured employees to recover, but these procedures will often vary from state to state.

Find and review your state’s Workers’ Compensation procedures (often available through a state’s Department of Labor [or equivalent]).  Your paper should provide an analysis of when an employee is covered by Worker’s Compensation vs. when they are covered by private/public health insurance; how they apply for Workers’ Compensation benefits; how benefits are calculated; and what the exceptions to the benefits, are, if any.  Your paper should also include information on what employer’s obligations are to Workers’ Compensation and whether the employer can challenge the employee’s benefits. 

Your essay should be one to two pages in length and follow these guidelines:

• Double-spaced
• 12-point Times font
• One inch margins
• APA format (Title page, Citations, Reference page, and quotes over three lines do not count towards the minimum page limit)
• Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation