Many businesses have workers who are doing their job duties remotely. That makes it difficult to ascertain whether an injury reported by the employee is really job-related or not. There is a plethora of situations that might prove to be challenging to sort through.
One thing that’s true across the board is that no employer or insurer wants to pay out benefits on a workers’ compensation claim that’s not related to the person’s job duties. Because of the blurred lines that occur with remote workers, injury claims have to be thoroughly vetted.
Protect your company
Any company that has remote workers should have a telework agreement on file with each employee. This outlines a variety of points, including when and where the employee will do their job duties. It can also include things like work hours and the job duties they’ll be handling. It should also outline the process for filing a workers’ compensation claim or reporting a job-related injury.
Investigating an injury
You should have a process established for what happens when an employee reports an injury. In the telework situation, there likely aren’t going to be impartial witnesses. You’ll have to use other methods to determine what happened. One key component to this might be medical evaluations to determine whether the injury could have happened in the situation the employee is describing. This may give you information to dispute the worker’s claims.
If your company is facing a work-related injury claim from a remote worker, you should learn how to determine whether it is compensable or not. Working closely with an attorney who is familiar with these cases may help to provide you with guidance to determine how to handle the matter. There are time limits to these cases so be sure to work on it swiftly when you’re alerted to the injury.
