You suffer a serious injury on the job. It needs medical care, and you’re going to miss time at work. You decide that you’re going to seek workers’ comp, and you let your boss know about your plan.
To your surprise, your boss says that you can’t actually seek workers’ comp. They point out that you were at fault for the incident in which you were injured. Maybe you made some sort of a mistake or an oversight. But they claim that your negligence is what caused the injury, so they don’t have to cover you. Is this true?
You still do deserve workers comp
Your boss may believe that this is how the system works, but they are incorrect. If you are at fault, that doesn’t remove your ability to seek workers’ comp. If you were injured by a negligent co-worker, the same thing is true. You can still seek the money you need.
In either case, you were still injured on the job. Who caused that injury does not matter because workers’ comp is set up as a no-fault system. All workers in all industries are going to make mistakes at some point. Someone who simply works on a computer may not be injured because of this mistake, but someone who works on a construction site could be. The workers’ comp laws recognize the fact that injuries are going to happen and that those workers still deserve compensation.
Of course, if your boss does not believe that this how is how it works, this could get a bit more complicated than it should. Be sure you know about your legal options.