In this life, accidents are always omnipresent. Everyone has their share of accidents in the span of their lifetime. Especially for employees, everyday there is a possibility of getting into an accident or catching a work-related illness as result of an accident.
What can we do, getting into accidents is an unpleasant and unfortunate fact of life.
Even during times when we believe we had done everything possible to prevent an accident from happening, there are factors that we cannot control.
The workplace of an employee is among the prime area where accidents can happen. There are many policies for upholding the safety and security in a workplace. There are federal and state policies passed in order to keep the workplace safe and secure enough for employees. There are even government agencies created to look into the compliance of health and safety by the employer.
By principle, the employers should comply with these policies. If ever an accident occurred and an employee is injured, the brunt of liability is always on the employer.
There are compensation laws that ensure employees who are injured or disabled while at work to be provided with payment for damages. Likewise, there are also benefits for the dependents of workers who are killed because of accidents in the workplace or work-related illness. These kinds of benefit aim to mitigate the implications of an accident that happen to an employee, somehow.
The Workers Compensation claim is a law that provides preset monetary awards for an injured employee. This eliminates the process of litigation.
Meanwhile, there are also laws protecting employers and co-employees because it limits the amount an employee can claim for damages. There are laws that eliminate the legal responsibility of fellow employees in case of accidents to a co-worker. The statutes in the State Workers Compensation established this framework for most employment.
There are also federal statutes for employment that covers only federal employees or those workers employed in most major aspect of interstate business.
Categories of Workers’ Compensation Act, passed by Congress:
1. FELA - Federal Employment Liability Act
2. Black Lung Benefit Act
3. Federal Jones Act
4. LHWCA - Longshore and Harbor Worker Compensation Act
Meanwhile, the Federal Employment Compensation Act gives provision for compensation of non-military and federal employees. Many of the conditions included in this act are characteristic of most of the laws regarding worker compensation.
The damage payments are restricted only to death or disability suffered during the employee’s performance of his or her duties but not due to the intention of the employee or because of intoxication. The act provides the funding of medical expenses for the employee with disability with requirement for job retraining by the employee, if needed.
Furthermore, during the disability, the employee may receive some two thirds of his or her regular salary each month. The compensation may be more if the injuries sustained are permanent or if the employee has dependents.
Likewise, the act also provides compensation for the survivors of employees that are killed. The agency administering this act is the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs.
An example of an all-inclusive state’s compensation program is the state of California's Workers Compensation Act. It can benefit employers because its statute limits the employer’s and fellow employees’ liability.
The California statutes of workers compensation further necessitates the employers to get insurance, which will encompass claims of employees for compensation.
It is said that prevention is better than cure. Nevertheless, there can also be ways to make the cure a little better. This could be the guiding principle of Workers Compensation claims.
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