Ignore These Myths About Workers’ Compensation Benefits

A job-related injury is not what you need now. You consider your options, but there really is only one that continues to surface. Seeking workers’ compensation benefits is what you need to do as well as what you have in mind.

However, some co-workers and even some managers attempt to wave you off from pursuing that route. “It will only hurt you and the company,” some say. Such comments make you uncertain. What do you believe? Who do you believe? Remember this, though, misconceptions regarding workers’ compensation may take many forms. Do what you need to do, and that includes filing for workers’ compensation benefits.

Nonsense and Illegal

When it comes to workers’ compensation, there are misconceptions by the number. Here are some of the more common ones:

• The injury must have taken place while an employee works: You do not have to involved in work-related tasks or working your shift for injuries in order to qualify for workers’ compensation. When it comes to work-related injuries, workers’ compensation casts a wide net. Injuries that may qualify you for benefits can happen during a break, in the company’s parking lot, during a business trip as well as at home as long as the injury stems from the workplace and your role.

• The employee’s injury must occur on the job site: Many medical conditions diagnosed on people stem from their job. They may include repetitive stress injuries, carpal tunnel syndrome, hearing loss and respiratory ailments. All of these represent maladies with direct ties to the person’s work and conditions at the workplace.

• The work injuries must be physical injuries: This has ties to the point directly above. Medical conditions such as lung ailments caused by inhaling contaminants may qualify you for benefits, so can repetitive motion injuries that gradually surface due to regular on-the-job movement.

• The fault of the worker disqualifies him or her from receiving benefits: Pointing the finger of blame does not work with workers’ compensation. An on-the-job mistake or misusing equipment may qualify you for benefits. (However, instances of horseplay on the job may disqualify you.)

• An employee can be fired for seeking workers’ compensation benefits: Intimidation such as making threats to fire someone for seeking benefits is against the law. Employers cannot do this. This is retaliation.

• Workers’ compensation benefits simply cover medical expenses: Those benefits not only are designated for medical expenses, but lost wages, additional costs related to health care and even funeral-related expenses.

Misconceptions regarding workers’ compensation represent an unnecessary hurdle. Know your rights, do your research and stop listening to the well-intentioned and not-so-well-intentioned people who provide unsolicited advice that really is nonsense.