Workers’ Compensation for Farm/ Agricultural Workers

Workers’ Compensation for Farm/ Agricultural Workers Workers’ compensation may be obtained by farm and agricultural workers also based on a medical record review and other procedures.

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MOS Medical Record Reviews 918-221-7791 8596 E. 101st Street, Suite H Tulsa, OK 74133

Work-related injuries or illnesses are common in all work environments, which makes workers’ compensation insurance a very important consideration. Since it involves a detailed evaluation of the medical records of the injured worker, the services

of

a

medical

review

company

become

invaluable

to

workers’

compensation attorneys. Such professional assistance helps save valuable time and effort that need to be spent on determining the legal validity of the claim.

Agriculture is considered a hazardous industry but unfortunately around half of U.S. states allow agricultural employers to provide little or no workers’ compensation coverage for their seasonal and migrant farm workers. Only very few insurers offer workers’ compensation programs for agricultural employers and this makes it tough to find coverage outside of a state fund. Moreover, laws regarding workers’ compensation also vary from one state to another.

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Only13 states in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands require employers to cover seasonal agricultural workers just as they cover all other workers. These jurisdictions are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

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In an additional 13 states, only small farmers are exempt from providing workers’ compensation coverage for their migrant and seasonal farm workers.

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Employers who recruit legal temporary foreign workers under the H-2A visa program are required to provide workers’ comp insurance or similar benefits to their employees.

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16 U.S. states -- Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas – do not require employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance for their migrant or seasonal farm workers.

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In 8 states, coverage is limited to full-time workers (e.g. Maine), workers in specialty jobs (e.g. South Dakota), and those employed on large farms (e.g.

Rhode Island).

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918-221-7791

There are certain specific reasons that prevent farm workers from obtaining workers’ compensation. Lack of coverage, reluctance on the part of the workers to file claims out of fear of employer retaliation; a growing trend to reduce or deny benefits to undocumented workers; difficult in finding a doctor who will allow farm workers to stay away from work long enough to enable them to fully recover and so on. In the absence of due compensation, farm workers injured on the job may have to forego the necessary treatment or even incur debt to obtain it.

Protections are limited for undocumented workers: Court case decisions have limited or eliminated benefits for undocumented workers. In California and Michigan, courts have ruled that undocumented, injured employees could receive medical benefits, but not replacement wages. In Maine, undocumented workers are prohibited from receiving any workers’ compensation benefits.

Fear of retaliation from the employer: Many farm workers are discouraged from filing workers’ compensation claims even when they are eligible for benefits by the threats of employer retaliation.

Undocumented workers do not qualify for

federally funded legal services, and many workers would rather give up their claim than lose their jobs.

Healthcare providers do not help: It is difficult for farm workers to find a doctor who will handle their workers’ compensation cases. Migrant clinics are often hesitant to handle such cases. Sometimes, clinicians may not have the language skills or cultural competency to successfully treat migrant patients. Also, clinicians may not be sufficiently informed about the workers’ comp rules in their state.

Farm workers are often released to return to work to do “light duty”, even when no such jobs exist at their workplace. Consequently, these workers will either have to work where they risk injuring themselves again, or refuse to return and suffer the loss of benefits.

In states where workers’ comp is mandatory, employers who are non-compliant and don’t carry workers’ compensation policy, expose themselves to the risk of personally paying for the injured workers’ wage losses and medical expenses as well as the negligence lawsuits that may be filed by the injured workers. There are states that issue fines for non-compliance and based on the level of violation, an

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employer could be charged with a misdemeanour or felony for not carrying a workers’ compensation policy.

Many agricultural employers mistakenly believe they are exempt from workers’ compensation laws. Even states that have agricultural exemptions may have stringent guidelines that are to be met by employers. In Pennsylvania for instance, there is a specific payment threshold that cannot be exceeded per employee, per year and /or a maximum number of days any one employee can work each year. In states with this exemption, farm insurance companies usually offer coverage in the form of Farm Employer’s Liability that protects the employer in case one of their employees claims that the employer’s negligence directly caused them injury during employment. Though not a substitute for workers’ compensation that pays irrespective of fault, this is also an important coverage to include on the employer’s policy if the employer hires seasonal labor.

It is always advisable for agricultural employers to provide workers’ compensation coverage for their employees, whether it is mandatory or not in their state. Many states are continuing to make this program mandatory. For example, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that requires farm employers to provide workers’ compensation coverage for laborers, institutes injury reporting requirements,

and

offers

workers

additional

protections.

This

legislation

establishes the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act that will provide farm workers with overtime pay, a day off each week, disability and paid family leave coverage, workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits. Earlier, farm workers have been largely exempt from the state’s labor laws and other protections offered to workers. This act recognizes agriculture as a unique industry and grants collective bargaining rights to farm laborers, caps the work week at 60 hours per week, requires laborers to receive a minimum of 24 hours off each week, requires overtime payment, mandates sanitary codes to be applied to farm worker housing and removes a payroll threshold for requiring farm labor employers to obtain workers’ compensation. The law that takes effect on January 1, 2020, also requires farm laborers to report any injuries to their employer.

Farm workers injured on the job can benefit from the assistance of a workers’ compensation attorney who will help determine if they can file for workers’

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compensation or personal injury. The attorney will arrange for all medical records to be collected for a detailed medical record review. Depending on the severity of the injury and its debilitating effects, a claim can be filed to secure the due compensation.

www.mosmedicalrecordreview.com

918-221-7791