Every job comes with a degree of risk. Those who work in landscaping could hurt themselves with heavy machinery or end up sickened due to chemical exposure. Office workers can suffer electrical injuries or repetitive stress injuries. Often, an employer is at least partially accountable for those injuries by requiring repetitive job tasks or exposing a worker to certain hazards.
However, there are a variety of scenarios in which an outside party is obviously to blame for a worker’s injury. Maybe a construction professional gets hurt by a power tool that has bad wiring. Maybe a retail manager who drives to the bank daily ends up in a crash caused by a distracted driver while on the clock. Maybe someone tried to rob the store where they work and punched them, causing a brain injury.
Can workers’ compensation benefits protect those injured by other people, not by neglect or mistakes on the part of an employer?
Workers’ compensation doesn’t rely on fault
Part of what makes workers’ compensation so beneficial for employees is that it provides no-fault coverage. Neither the employee nor the employer has to prove who was to blame for the incident. Even in cases where fault is clear, it typically does not affect benefit eligibility.
Instead, the worker just needs to show that their medical condition is a direct result of their job. Even when an outside party is technically to blame for their injuries, they can still apply for workers’ compensation benefits. Employees hurt by car crashes, defective products or workplace violence can secure both medical benefits and disability benefits to reduce the financial impact their medical challenges create for them.
Occasionally, third-party incidents can lead to complications that may make it a bit more difficult to obtain the maximum benefits possible. Other times, those scenarios may open the door to alternative forms of compensation, such as a lawsuit brought against a manufacturer that released unsafe products.
Learning more about the rules that apply to workers’ compensation claims can help employees limit their losses they suffer after getting hurt on the job. Regardless of who is at fault, workers’ compensation benefits are usually available to help them cover key basic expenses.