Mar 14, 2021

Covid-19 And Federal Workers Compensation

      I don't know whether there have already been cases of Covid-19 associated with employment at Social Security. If not, there may be before this is over. The Department of Labor has issued some guidelines for federal workers compensation cases alleging Covid-19 as an occupational disease.

     By the way, I once had a client who got workers compensation benefits for a really bad case of tuberculosis that was affecting parts of his body well beyond his lungs. There was no dispute about it being a compensable occupational disease. He had been a monkey handler working for an enterprise doing medical research. It turns out that tuberculosis is endemic among monkeys used in research and that getting tuberculosis is a well known risk of handling those monkeys. The things you learn in this line of work.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think if they can PROVE they got it at work, then it would be a good idea to add that on to WC. Don't need lawsuits. It's kinda hard to prove where one contracted it, however.

Anonymous said...

Workers comp at least in California is a mess. The insurance companies out here fight tooth and nail. Now, state disability is much easier so I see a lot of people relying on that prior to Social Security. We will see if California workers comp is more sympathetic to Covid cases.

Anonymous said...

Yes, in general California worker compensation is a mess, however California has a rebuttable presumption that employees Covid cases are industrially related if they meet certain criteria.