Worker's Compensation Law

Workers compensation is a very important field of the law, if not the most important. It touches more lives than any other field of the law. It involves the payments of huge sums of money. The welfare of human beings, the success of business, and the pocketbooks of consumers are affected daily by it.

The Black Lung Benefits Act (BLBA) is administered by the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The Act provides for monthly payments to and medical treatment for coal miners totally disabled from pneumoconiosis (black lung disease) arising from employment in or around the nation's coal mines.

The mission of the Division of Coal Mine Workers' Compensation, or Federal Black Lung Program, is to administer claims filed under the Black Lung Benefits Act. The Act provides compensation to coal miners who are totally disabled by pneumoconiosis arising out of coal mine employment, and to survivors of coal miners whose deaths are attributable to the disease. The Act also provides eligible miners with medical coverage for the treatment of lung diseases related to pneumoconiosis.

The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program (EEOICP) began on July 31, 2001 with the Department of Labor’s implementation of Part B; Part E implementation began on October 28, 2004. The mission of the program is to provide lump-sum compensation and health benefits to eligible Department of Energy nuclear weapons workers (including employees, former employees, contractors and subcontractors) and lump-sum compensation to certain survivors if the worker is deceased.

The Federal Employees' Compensation Act provides workers' compensation coverage to three million federal and postal workers around the world for employment-related injuries and occupational diseases.

The mission of DLHWC is to minimize the impact of employment injuries and deaths on employees and their families by ensuring that workers' compensation benefits provided under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act and it extensions (including the Defense Base Act) are paid promptly and properly, and providing information, technical and compliance assistance, support, and informal dispute resolution services to workers, employers, and insurers.

The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act (FECA), 5 USC Chapter 81, provides compensation benefits to Federal employees for work-related injuries or illnesses, and to their surviving dependents if a work-related injury or illness results in the employee’s death. The FECA is administered by the Department of Labor, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP). The 12 OWCP district offices adjudicate the claims and pay benefits, and the costs of those benefits are charged back to the employing agency.

You have the right to a safe workplace. The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSHAct) was passed to prevent workers from being killed or seriously harmed at work. The law requires that employers provide their employees with working conditions that are free of known dangers. The Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which sets and enforces protective workplace safety and health standards.

The Office of Workers' Compensation Programs administers four major disability compensation programs which provide wage replacement benefits, medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation and other benefits to certain workers or their dependents who experience work-related injury or occupational disease.

The Safety, Health and Return to Employment (SHARE) initiative was launched in 2004 with the purpose of reducing occupational injuries, illnesses and fatalities within the Federal government. The initiative was scheduled to run for three years, and established four goals in the critical areas of safety, health and injury case management.

Workers' Compensation laws are designed to ensure that employees who are injured or disabled on the job are provided with fixed monetary awards, eliminating the need for litigation. These laws also provide benefits for dependents of those workers who are killed because of work-related accidents or illnesses. Some laws also protect employers and fellow workers by limiting the amount an injured employee can recover from an employer and by eliminating the liability of co-workers in most accidents. State Workers Compensation statutes establish this framework for most employment. Federal statutes are limited to federal employees or those workers employed in some significant aspect of interstate commerce.

Workers compensation systems vary from state to state. State statutes and court decisions control many aspects, including the handling of claims, the evaluation of impairment and settlement of disputes, the amount of benefits injured workers receive and the strategies used to control costs. As part of the social contract embedded in each state’s law, the employee gives up the right to sue the employer for injuries caused by the employer’s negligence.

This enforcement guidance concerns the interaction between Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and state workers compensation laws. The purpose of the former is to prohibit employers from discriminating against qualified individuals because of disability, while the purpose of the latter is to provide a system for securing prompt and fair settlement of employees' claims for occupational injury and illness. The purposes of the two laws are not in conflict, yet their simultaneous application has raised many questions.

The Workers Compensation Research Institute is an independent, not-for-profit research organization providing high-quality, objective information about public policy issues involving workers' compensation systems. Organized in late 1983, the Institute does not take positions on the issues it researches; rather, it provides information obtained through studies and data collection efforts, which conform to recognized scientific methods. Objectivity is further ensured through rigorous, unbiased peer review procedures.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) is a voluntary federation of 56 national and international labor unions, representing 10.5 million members. This site is a valuable source of information about the benefits available through workers compensation in each state. The AFL-CIO periodically updates a wealth of relevant resources.

he National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary, Inc. (NAWCJ) is a non-profit organization designed to provide educational opportunities exclusively for the workers’ compensation judiciary at the trial or appellate level. Designed to enhance justice within the workers’ compensation system, regardless of state or jurisdiction, the association is coordinated and overseen by members of the judiciary directly responsible for the adjudication of workers’ compensation matters.

Professionals in Workers Compensation (PWC) is a progressive organization of professionals from many fields and disciplines that play an integral role in workers compensation. Its goal is to provide quality educational and skill-building programs by creating opportunities for networking and learning. It also serves as a venue for establishing and maintaining relationships that engender a respectful view of the common goals and challenges faced by those in the workers compensation field.

Six papers on workers compensation and its interaction with the Social Security Disability Insurance program were published in the Social Security Bulletin in Vol. 65 No. 4 (May 2005). The papers grew out of the seminar, “Interaction of Workers' Compensation and Social Security Disability Insurance,” co-sponsored by the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) and the Social Security Administration.

Articles written by attorneys and experts worldwide discussing legal aspects related to Employment and Labor including: discrimination, employee benefits, employees rights, ERISA, human resources law, labor relations, outsourcing, sexual harassment, whistleblower, workers compensation and wrongful termination.