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Recent Workers Compensation Ruling May Affect You
Recently, a Pennsylvania appellate court affirmed a decision by a lower court that a summer employee cannot be considered a seasonal employee and thus be entitled to less in workers compensation benefits. The theory being that the employee could be doing year-round work otherwise if not for the injury. Please see the attached brief of the relevant case.
While the Workers Compensation system is controlled by each state, this decision has ramifications of course not only in Pennsylvania but may also impact other similar claims and cases in the future in other states.
Workers Compensation is a good chunk of your overall premium and your experience modification factor which debits or credits state WC rates, is directly impacted by your claims. This further solidifies the fact that you should stress to staff the importance of worker safety, that you discuss it during orientation and throughout the year, you investigate each and every worker accident with the goal of understanding what happened to prevent recurrence, and otherwise make worker safety part of your culture.
The workers compensation system is skewed against the employer in favor of the employee. This case exemplifies this and reinforces your need to be proactive in loss control and claim prevention.
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