Service workers often receive low wages for their efforts. They have stressful job responsibilities that include dealing with frustrated customers. They may even have irregular schedules, which can make it difficult for them to maintain a second job and handle personal needs in a timely manner.
In addition to being at risk of repetitive strain, slip-and-falls and a host of other on-the-job injuries, service workers are at risk of violence in the workplace. Reports of injuries and fatalities involving service workers hurt by aggressive patrons or those with criminal intentions have increased in recent years.
The workers involved in those scenarios may have serious physical injuries that require medical care and affect their ability to work. How can service employees cover those expenses?
Workers’ compensation may be able to help
People sometimes misunderstand when workers’ compensation benefits are available. Specifically, they may operate under the assumption that workers’ compensation only covers injuries and illnesses directly caused by their employers.
In a situation where it is obvious that an outside party is at fault, employees may not realize that they are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Generally speaking, any medical condition that has a direct correlation to an individual’s employment may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. The benefits available include medical coverage for necessary treatments and disability benefits for their lost income.
Is the criminal or assailant liable?
Sometimes, workers feel anxious about filing workers’ compensation claims because they don’t want to negatively affect the companies that employ them. They might hope instead to hold the criminal who attacked them or attempted to rob the store accountable for their injuries.
Pursuing a lawsuit against someone who injures another person in an act of interpersonal violence or during the commission of a crime is theoretically possible. However, those committing crimes of desperation, including robbery and shoplifting, may have neither the income nor the personal assets to fully compensate the people they injure.
Workers harmed by violence on the job may need to consider seeking workers’ compensation benefits in addition to any legal action they pursue against the person who hurt them at work. Doing so can cover the gaps in compensation created by relying on one option. Filing a workers’ compensation claim and a third-party personal injury lawsuit could both be viable options after a service worker ends up hurt as a result of criminal activity in their workplace.