Accidents can occur even when a job place is deemed safe. Carrying a large load puts your shoulder at risk of dislocation. Even if you are wearing protective gear, a falling object could still hit you and cause injury. You can slip and fall at the office or suffer from repetitive stress injury from using a computer. Every employee in California has to understand how workers’ compensation works for this reason.
How Does Workers’ Compensation Work?
Every employer in California is obliged to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This is distinct from general liability insurance, which solely addresses third-party claims for bodily injury. Workers’ compensation insurance must be in place for employers to cover employee injuries.
Within one working day of you reporting your accident, your employer must give you a workers’ compensation claim form if you are wounded at work. Your employer must then forward the claim to the claims administrator for processing.
Employers who do not provide workers’ compensation coverage and who are not exempt from the rule are breaking the law. In California, a misdemeanor like this carries a minimum fine of $10,000 or a year in jail as a penalty. Employers who are improperly uninsured are also subject to fines of up to $100,000. If an employee becomes ill or injured at work and the employer is not covered by insurance, the employer is responsible for covering all connected expenses.
What is Covered by Workers’ Compensation?
You are eligible to benefits under workers’ compensation insurance if you are wounded at work. Included in this are payments for work displacement, temporary disability, permanent disability, and medical care to get the essential therapy for your injuries.
Workers’ Compensation: What Every Employee Needs to Know
You should never have to pay out of pocket for a work injury, even if it occurs on your first day of employment. By law, employers must pay for workers’ compensation to provide you with benefits that compensate for your medical expenses and a percentage of your lost wages.
Some accidents result in injuries after a single occurrence, such getting shocked by electrical lines at work. Other times, it results from repeated exposure, such as while using dangerous chemicals at work.
No of the kind of injury, you must report your ailment right away if you get wounded at work. You risk losing your workers’ compensation payments if you do not report a job accident within 30 days.
Additionally, be careful to get medical attention. Tell the medical staff that your injury was caused by your job when you go there for treatment. Your employer should then provide you with a workers’ compensation claim form. You must promptly complete it and send it back. This completed form must be delivered to the claims administrator by your employer.
Within one working day of the time you reported your accident, your employer must approve up to $10,000 in medical care while the administrator evaluates the claim. When it is accepted, the workers’ compensation insurance will pay for all of your injury-related medical costs. You can potentially be eligible for short- or long-term disability compensation.
You will receive a voucher to help pay for retraining so you may acquire an alternative employment if your injury prevents you from returning to work. The dependents of an employee who passes away due to injuries experienced at work will be compensated up to $10,000 for funeral costs.
Unscrupulous companies can fail to follow the correct procedures, depriving their employees of benefits. If you are being refused coverage following a workplace injury, get in touch with a Los Angeles workers’ compensation attorney.