Workplace violence has become a sad fact of life in the U.S. Sometimes it’s at the hands of current or former employees. Sometimes, a customer, visitor or someone whose target is an employee is the perpetrator. Hospital employees, for example, are too often the victims of violence by patients who may be mentally unstable or who react badly to medications or simply to the situation they’re facing – or by those who follow someone into the emergency room to continue an altercation.
Those who are injured or whose loved ones are killed in an act of workplace violence may be able to get workers’ compensation benefits. Workers’ comp laws vary throughout the country. Let’s take a look at New York law.
Did the violence arise out of a person’s employment and during the course of it?
Under state law, for a workplace injury to be covered by workers’ comp, it must “arise out of employment” and be suffered “in the course of employment.” The law has what’s called a “rebuttable presumption” that if an injury occurred in the workplace, it was related to the employee’s job.
If one employee attacks another or if a robber shoots an employee, these would often both qualify as compensable. But what about that reputable presumption?
What if one employee attacked another not because they were fighting not over who would get an overtime shift but over politics or sports? An argument could be made that the assault, and therefore the injury, didn’t arise out of employment even though it occurred during the course of employment.
A case against the employer for negligence could be made
The same argument could be made if, as too often occurs, an angry spouse or partner follows someone to their workplace and attacks them (and sometimes others). Of course, in that case, if an employee is denied workers’ comp, they could potentially file a negligence lawsuit against the employer if the attacker was able to bypass security systems.
To use that first example about a fight over politics or sports, if an employee who has exhibited violent and unstable behavior in the past physically attacks someone over something unrelated to work, a victim might be able to bring a negligence case if the employer ignored those complaints.
If you believe you’ve been wrongfully denied workers’ comp benefits after a workplace attack, it’s smart to get legal guidance to better understand your rights under the law.