Lately there’s been a lot of buzz in the media about illegal workers hired by employers and what rights these workers have under workers’ compensation laws when they are injured in the workplace.
From its very beginnings (1914) workers’ compensation has had to deal with injured workers with legally questionable statuses such as:
- Illegal residency or work status.
- Underage employees working in violation of labor laws.
- Fraudulent misrepresentation to obtain employment.
- Inherently unlawful business (bars ands distilleries during Prohibition).
Conditions 1-3
The first three involve workers who, by law, cannot be part of the workforce. Nevertheless, many are and many are injured. Work compensation laws have, in New York, always held that the irregular, or even unlawful, status of a worker is not a bar to benefits for work injury. (Italics added).
In the first decade of workers’ compensation in New York many reported court decisions involved efforts to deny benefits because of violations of laws. Fraudulent misrepresentation, it was argued, led to a nullification of the employer-employee relationship, therefore voiding comp benefits. These arguments never succeeded. (Italics added).
The employment of workers who entered the United States illegally, or who do not have permission to enter the workforce, is not new and no effort to deny benefits has ever succeeded on those grounds since the workers’ compensation law was passed in 1914. (workersxzcompxzkit).
Condition 4
It is a different story with inherently illegal business activity. Operations entirely devoted to gambling, illegal distillations, loan sharking, drug transport, etc. are not covered under workers’ compensation laws. That, however, is the least of the workers’ worries. Obviously, people in these activities are often hurt but no claim is possible.
Author: Attorney Theodore Ronca is a practicing lawyer from Aquebogue, NY. He is a frequent writer and speaker, and has represented employers in the areas of workers’ compensation, Social Security disability, employee disability plans and subrogation for over 30 years. Attorney Ronca can be reached at 631-722-2100.
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