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Workers Comp Benefits Help Remote Workers

In most cases, you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if you get injured while working from home pursuant to instructions from your employer to work remotely.

According to Nebraska workers’ compensation laws, all injuries that employees sustain at their workplaces during work hours are eligible for coverage by their employers’ workers’ compensation insurance. You do not need to present a detailed argument about how your employer could have and should have prevented the accident; workers’ compensation claims are less about negligence and more about “accidents happen.” If the injury happened at work, it is compensable, and it is against the law for your employer to try to stop you from filing a workers’ compensation claim. Things are more complicated when your home is your workplace, but you are not your own boss. The Omaha workers’ compensation lawyers at Andres Law Offices, PC LLO can help you file a workers’ compensation claim related to an injury you suffered while working remotely.

The Ambiguities of Working From Home Can Complicate Workers’ Compensation Claims

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the line between work and home was becoming uncomfortably blurry for many employees. Work emails appear on your phone at all hours of the day and night, and no matter what your employment contract says about work hours, there is hardly ever a time when you are not doing something related to your job. Many office workers spent the better part of 2020 working from home, either because of statewide mandates or because of the company policies of their employers. Now that office work has mostly returned to the office, some employees still work from home on at least some days.

The abrupt transition to remote work was anything but streamlined. Workers had to report to virtual work meetings from home whether they had home offices or not; the barking dogs and restless children trying to cope with remote schooling were the least of anyone’s complaints. Work injuries among remote workers created all kinds of confusion. The most famous case involved a Florida woman who tripped over her dog and got injured while reaching for a coffee mug in her kitchen during a break from remote work. If it had happened in an office breakroom, there would have been no doubt that the injury was compensable.

Remote workers are simultaneously at work and not at work, simultaneously doing work tasks and home tasks. There is room for your employer to argue that you were not actually at work or not actually doing your job at the time of the accident, but you also have a chance to argue that you were. If you got injured while working remotely, especially if your work hours were not clearly defined, and especially if your injuries were severe and require costly treatment, it is a good idea to hire a workers’ compensation lawyer.

An Omaha workers’ compensation lawyer can help you if you got injured while working from home. Contact Andres Law Offices, PC LLO in Omaha, Nebraska about your case.