Are Injured Undocumented Workers Eligible For Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation?

Yes.  To answer shortly.  Undocumented workers (or illegal aliens) are eligible for workers' compensation benefits when they are injured at work.  However, there are some issues that should be considered before an undocumented worker files a workers' compensation claim.

First, your undocumented status could be revealed during the litigation of your claim.  Eventually, the INS could possibly investigate and deport the worker.  Although this is unlikely, it is still a possibility.

 

Second, often wages are paid under the table and paid in cash.  Because of this, and the worker's undocumented status, many times these wages are not reported to the IRS.  Again, although it is unlikely, the IRS could investigate.

 

Third, the employer is less likely to bring you back to work after you recover from your work injury if he discovers during the litigation of your compensation claim that you are undocumented.  However, most likely the employer already knows your undocumented status before the work injury.  Further, if the injury is serious enough, you might not be able to return back to heavy labor work anyway.

 

The bottom line is that if you're an undocumented worker and are injured at work, before you do anything you should talk to an experienced workers' compensation lawyer.

Woman Injured During Sex On Business Trip Gets Workers' Compensation

I call that some good lawyering.....

An Australian female civil servant woncompensation for an injury sustained while having sex on a business trip, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The Australian Federal Court ruled the woman was entitled to compensation claim for facial and psychological injuries suffered when a light fixture fell off the wall and on top of her in a motel room bed where she was having sex with a male friend.

The woman, who remains anonymous to protect her identity, suffered injuries to her nose, mouth and a tooth from the glass light hitting her face, according to the BBC.

The incident, which took place in November 2007, reverses a previous lower court decision.

As an employee for Australia's Commonwealth Government agency, the woman's lawyer argued 
sex was an ordinary incident of life in a hotel room, reports NEWS.com.au.

Because the woman had been on a work trip, the judge made the decision to compensate her for the incident.

"If the applicant had been injured while playing a game of cards in her motel room, she would have been entitled to compensation," Justice John Nickolas said.

Low wage workers are often cheated, study says

Attached is a link to a New York Times article detailing a new study based upon workers in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. The gist of the study is that low wage workers are routinely denied proper overtime pay and are often paid less than the minimum wage, which is against the law.

Some of the specifics of the study indicate that sixty eight percent (68%) of the workers interviewed had experienced at least one pay related violation in the previous work week. The typical worker had lost Fifty One Dollars ($51.00) the previous week through wage violations, out of average weekly earnings of Three Hundred and Thirty Nine Dollars ($339.00) per week. That translates into a fifteen percent (15%) loss of pay for that specific week. For low wage workers, this is a significant amount of loss.

The survey included 4,387 workers from various low wage industries including para manufacturing, child care and discount retailing.

One of the most surprising findings that relate to the workers' compensation practice at Carroll & Carroll, P.C. was that only eight percent (8%) of those who suffered serious injuries on the job filed for workers' compensation to pay for medical care and missed days of work. This is obviously due to the fact that employers are very good at pressuring low wage workers into not filing claims or just completely misleading their injured employees.

Some of the other findings in the study: seventy six percent (76%) of those who had worked overtime the week before were not paid their proper overtime. Twenty six percent (26%) of the workers had been paid less than the minimum wage the week before being surveyed. Further, one in seven had worked off the clock the previous week.

In instances where the employee was injured and workers' compensation should have been applied, the study found that one third (1/3) of all injured workers had to pay the work related medical bills out of their own pocket and that workers' compensation insurance paid medical expenses for only six percent (6%) of the injured workers surveyed.

This study clearly demonstrates the need for more enforcement of wage and hour laws. It also clearly demonstrates why our workers' compensation practice is so busy.

Worker Compensation Grows by Lowest Amount On Record

From the Department of Labor:

Employment compensation for U.S. workers has grown over the past 12 months by the lowest amount on record, reflecting the severe recession that has gripped the country.

The Labor Department said Friday that employment costs rose by 1.8 percent for the 12 months ending in June, the smallest annual gain on records that go back to 1982. The department said that for the April-June quarter, its Employment Cost Index rose by just 0.4 percent, just slightly above the 0.3 percent rise in the first quarter, which had been the smallest quarterly gain on record.

I, personally, believe this recession is not nearly over, despite what the main stream media has to say about it.