Workers Compensation for Telecommuters

Are telecommuters covered under Workers Compensation? The answer is yes. An employee illness or injury is compensable under the workers’ compensation in case it arises out of and while in the period of employment, no matter the location the injury takes place.

There’s no secret that people’s workplace is changing in this era. With Today’s technology employees can be able to work almost from anywhere yet simultaneously being connected all the time. For the case of telecommuting workers, this chance brings unprecedented act of freedom when it comes to choosing the environment and where exactly to work at, and a significant number are grabbing this advantage with both their arms.

For employers, there are important advantages also when you embrace the telecommuting working style. Allowing employees work from their home helps in:

• Attracting talent from a wide geographic area.

• Boosting worker retention.

• Lowering the fixed costs.

• Increase worker productivity.

Telecommuting can also cause challenges, including the one which a lot of employers normally don’t typically consider: this is the need for Workers’ Compensation insurance that will cover employees who work from their home or other locations external from the main firm.

While some workers might not refer telecommuters to have be a Workers’ Compensation cover, the truth is that a lot of employers act on blind faith on their employees’ work “stations”, especially when home offices. Most of the time they underestimate these employees’ exposure. There are numerous scenarios in which employers could be found liable for injuries that occur in or near a home office.

Qualifications for workers compensation for telecommuters

Generally, we have two criteria that ought to be met in order for an injury to be compensable under Workers’ Compensation laws. First, one’s injury must “come out” on one’s employment. The employee has to have been acting in his/hers employer’s interest at the time the injury occurred.

Secondly, the injury has to have occurred in the course of ones’ employment. It means that the injury must occur at the point where they may reasonably be at and was while the employee was doing his or assigned job.

For telecommuters, the legal question of whether an injury is compensable can be tricky. For example, if an employee is injured working from home typing, the injury is likely to be compensable. If they are injured while stepping away for coffee, it is unlikely to qualify for Workers’ Compensation benefits.

Certain scenarios are not likely to be considered compensable:

• An employee leaves the home office and is injured during a nonwork-related errand.

• An employee takes a break from work and gets hurt vacuuming the house or cleaning the garage.

• An employee who sets up a remote office in a local coffee shop goes shopping next door and is injured in a slip-an-fall accident.

Here are best practices for creating a buttoned-up work-from-home policy:

• Physically inspect the employee’s home office to make sure it is safe.

• Clearly define the physical boundaries of the home office. If the boundaries are not well-established, an employer might be liable for an injury that happens anywhere on the employee’s property. If the employee has a desk job and works at a computer most of the time, you don’t want to be liable for a mishap that occurs in the garage.

• Employers should set specific work hours and establish set breaks where possible. Without this policy, an employee could argue that an injury occurring at any time of day or night is work-related.

• Specifically describe the scope of the employee’s activities. This reduces the possibility a clerical employee could successfully present a claim for doing a physical activity while in the home. The policy should make it clear that activities falling outside the employee’s job description are not the employer’s responsibility.