Remote Work And Work From Home: Can I Get Workers’ Compensation If I Am Injured?
In West Palm Beach, throughout the state of Florida, and across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many employees who typically work in an office to shift to remote work or a work-from-home model. Although many of the risks of the pandemic have begun to ease in the United States, many workers will continue to work remotely or to spend only part of their time in the office, with their remaining work hours performed at home. Indeed, according to an article in The Business Journals, “post-pandemic remote work is here to stay, and that means downtowns will have to adjust.” With so many more workers conducting job duties remotely, it might seem as though rates of workplace injury have also declined since there are fewer physical businesses from which employees are working.
Yet it is important to remember that workplace injuries can be wide-ranging and varied, and even employees who work from home some or all of the time can suffer an on-the-job injury. What do you need to know about work-from-home injuries and workers’ compensation claims in West Palm Beach or elsewhere in South Florida?
Many Types of Work-From-Home Injuries Can Occur
Workplace injuries are not limited to dangerous job sites like construction zones or manufacturing plants or factories. To be sure, remote work injuries, or work-from-home injuries, can happen almost anywhere depending upon the type of injury and the circumstances surrounding the worker’s harm. While there are multiple ways in which an employee can get hurt while working remotely, some examples of such injuries include:
- Repetitive motion injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome caused by typing or similar repetitive activities;
- Fractures or sprains from a slip and fall accident; or
- Cuts and lacerations from a work-from-home project.
When it comes to repetitive motion injuries, a worker ordinarily may be able to seek workers’ compensation benefits under Florida law by filing an occupational disease claim. Florida law defines an occupation disease as “a disease which is due to causes and conditions which are characteristic of and peculiar to a particular trade, occupation, process, or employment.” Yet can occupational disease claims, or other types of traumatic injuries resulting from work-from-home or remote work accidents, be compensable under the Florida workers’ compensation system?
Seeking Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Work-From-Home Injuries
Work-from-home, or remote work, injuries can be compensable under the Florida workers’ compensation system.
If you are working from home and suffer an injury, you should be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits if the injury occurs in the course and scope of your employment. However, it can be a bit more difficult to prove that your injury occurred in the course and scope of employment when you are working remotely as opposed to in an office or jobsite setting. You should begin working with a workers’ compensation lawyer who can help you to gather the evidence you need to prove your eligibility for benefits.
Contact Our West Palm Beach Workers’ Compensation Lawyers
If you are working remotely or if you have a job with work-from-home duties and you recently suffered an injury, you could be eligible to seek workers’ compensation benefits. An experienced South Florida workers’ compensation lawyer at our firm can help. Contact the Law Offices of David M. Benenfeld, P.A. today for more information.
Resources:
leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=0400-0499/0440/Sections/0440.151.html
bizjournals.com/bizjournals/news/2021/05/25/permanent-wfh-work-from-home-revenue-commute.html
