Your Employer’s Duties Surrounding Workers’ Compensation

As an employee of a business in the United States, you are entitled to workers’ compensation in most situations regarding workplace injuries. While there are some exceptions to the rule, your employer is legally obligated to provide you with this benefit. Larger companies may be self-insured, and two-person companies may be exempt, but everyone else should have a workers’ compensation policy with their insurance company. If your employer does not have this type of coverage, the company could face civil liability, fines, and criminal prosecution.

Other Duties Your Employer Has

Simply having a workers’ compensation policy is not enough for your employer. There are some other duties surrounding the policy that your employer must comply with. This includes:

Having a workers’ compensation compliance notice posted clearly on the job site. If there are multiple job sites, there should be multiple notices.
Getting immediate medical treatment for employees who are injured on the clock.
Helping the injured employee find a medical doctor covered by the workers’ compensation policy.
Reporting the injury to the workers’ comp board office. This report should also be mailed to the insurance company. Failure to make this report could result in fines and a misdemeanor.
Making an internal report of every accident that causes injury and loss of work time.
Giving the workers’ compensation board and insurance company the information they request to determine the injured employee’s work status.
Not retaliating against the injured employee by terminating or demoting him or her, or by reducing his or her salary.

What You Need to Do

As soon as you are injured, it is your responsibility to make sure your employer knows about the incident. Your boss can’t make a report to the workers’ comp board or the insurance company if he or she is unaware there was an injury. Especially in larger companies with many employees, it’s important you take this matter into your own hands.

If your boss was there and witnessed the accident, you probably don’t need to make an actual report, but it might be a good idea to write it down and turn it in anyway. Be sure you sign and date the report, as well as have your employer sign and date it when you give it to him or her. This protects you in the case your employer claims to have not known about the accident.

Contacting a Lawyer for Assistance

If you were injured in a workplace accident, you’ll probably want a lawyer by your side. Every employer deals with these situations a little differently, so it’s important you know what your rights are, what their duties are, and how to ensure everything gets taken care of. Contact a workers’ comp lawyer, like a workers compensation attorney Brooklyn offers, to assist you in this.

Thanks to Polsky, Shouldice & Rosen, P.C. for their insight into what the employer’s duties are surrounding a workers’ comp claim.