Can You Be Injured While Working From Home?

You sure can. The better question is: Can you get workers’ compensation if you are injured from home? Technically, you should be able to recover workers’ compensation payments if you sustain an injury that prevents you from doing your job, even if you are at home, so long as the injury is related to your work duties. Nonetheless, filing a workers’ comp claim from an injury you sustained while working at home is likely to be much more difficult than a claim where you were injured at work. Also relevant, however, is that the types of jobs that allow you to work from home are among the least likely to result in work-related injuries. In this article, we’ll discuss how this could turn out.

You are now more likely to have your claim denied 

If you’re able to do your work from home, it’s more likely that you do office-type work. Office-type work is among the least likely to require workers’ compensation insurance. Those who work in factories or do construction are unable to work from home and much more likely, in the course of their daily labor, to suffer an on-the-job injury. Unless a ceiling fixture falls on your head while you’re at your workstation, office injuries seldom result in workers’ comp claims.

However, if the light fixture does fall on your head and you have to miss work for a couple weeks, your employer’s workers’ compensation policy is now more likely to say that you can do your job from home and don’t need to be physically in the office to complete your job. That could actually make it more difficult for those who are injured by falling light fixtures to get compensation while they’re recovering because the insurance company figures you can complete your work at home.

Why remote work is the new normal 

Employees tend to prefer working at home to going to work. It saves them costs on formal clothing, commuting, and they can be around their own things while they’re doing their job. Since employees prefer it, so do employers, and there’s a lot for them to prefer. Remote work cuts costs relating to employment, making employers more than happy to offer their employees remote work, when possible.

Nonetheless, it’s a major complication for workers’ compensation claims. One would imagine if a light fixture fell on your head, that there would be physical evidence. Your head would hurt and sustain damage, other employees would witness the event, and there may even be cameras to capture the event on video. If a light fixture falls on your head while you’re at home, that would be a completely different story. Since you’re responsible for the light fixture, it’s your negligence that caused the injury. Your employer would not have control over the fixture.

So, while it is possible to file a workers’ compensation claim based on injuries sustained during remote working, it’s difficult to imagine any scenario in which an employee working from home would qualify under workers’ comp law.

Talk to a Miami Work Injury Attorney 

The Miami workers’ compensation lawyers at Payer Law represent workers filing compensation claims with their employers. Call today to learn more about how we can improve your chances of recovering compensation.