Workers’ compensation due to COVID-19

If you as a worker get sick from COVID-19, you will not be able to work, you will incur medical expenses, and that will affect your personal and family life. So, you might think that you are not entitled to workers’ compensation, but this may change depending on whether you contracted the virus while performing your duties in the workplace or not.

Would you qualify as a worker for workers’ compensation?

Whether you qualify as a worker to receive workers’ compensation depends on the following: insurance, your work situation, whether the claim was made on time and your work-related illnesses or injuries.

However, independent contractors, temporary workers, or volunteers do not qualify for compensation; only employees. In the case of volunteers, if they are covered by the employment agency that hired them, they would qualify. As for independent contractors, if they have at least a little control over what they do, and the employer sets the working hours, duties, and workplace, then they could be considered an employee.

In the case of COVID-19, the evaluation must be done in each particular case and depending on the circumstances of contracting COVID-19.

This article was translated from the original publication from Abogados Centro Legal:

https://abogadoscentrolegal.com/en/2020/04/14/compensacion-por-accidente-laboral-debido-al-covid-19/