You may know you can claim workers’ compensation if injured in a workplace accident. For instance, if a forklift runs over you while you are working in a warehouse, or you fall from a ladder while changing the lightbulb in your office.
But what about all those other situations that could leave you unable to work and in need of time off and treatment? Can you claim for those too, even when there was no accident?
You usually can if it is work-related. For example:
Illnesses
A disease can be debilitating and even life-threatening. There are plenty of illnesses you could get that require you to take time off from work. We are not talking about a bout of flu here, but something more serious. For instance, you work in a hospital and pick up a blood infection that one of the patients brought in. If you can show you caught it at work, rather than somewhere else, you should be eligible to claim, just as if there had been an accident.
Overuse injuries
Many jobs involve considerable repetition. For example, a cashier spends most of their day swiping items over a scanner in a certain direction. A hotel cleaner bends their back repeatedly to change beds and a landscape gardener pushes a shovel down with the same foot every time they dig. Doing this day after day for months or years can lead to overuse injuries also known as repetitive strain injuries. These too may be claimable under workers’ compensation insurance.
Learning more about how to file a workers’ compensation claim is wise if you suffer a work-related injury.