Are Your Workplace Practices Subjecting You to More Coverage?

01.14.16

Can your employment practices be subjecting you and your workers' compensation carrier to coverage 24/7 for your employees?

If employers allow their employees to "pick up" potentially useful items as part of their job duties and activities, at any time, does that make the employees' actions within the course and scope of employment and trigger coverage? For example, a petitioner purchases a display case late at night on a holiday and while moving the case out of her personal vehicle at home, she suffers a shoulder injury. Is that compensable? What if at a meeting a month earlier, it was discussed that a display case was needed for an upcoming vendor seminar? What if the night visit was because the owner of the company advised that no work could be done during the day due to a religious holiday and the petitioner (even though the office was closed) waited until after sundown? What if the petitioner was in the practice of picking up useful items at all different hours of the day or night or on weekends that would assist the employer with vendor presentations?

In the above situation, where an employer allows such activities to take place outside the normal working hours and had discussed the need for the equipment that was purchased, we believe a Judge of Workers' Compensation would conclude the resulting injury to be work related.

It would then behoove the carriers to find out if an employer has such unlimited restrictions on his or her employee's work activities for the purpose of setting the appropriate premium. It would also be advantageous to set specific limits on what an employer could accomplish during "non traditional" work hours and insist on outside vendors obtaining and delivering products to the employer and staff to avoid these risks. Limiting an employee's activities, could result in limiting potential claims.

For more information, contact Robert R. Hanneman Jr. at rhanneman@wglaw.com or 856.779.7010
Disclaimer: The contents of this post are for informational purposes only, are not legal advice and do not create and attorney-client relationship.

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