If you get injured on the job lifting a heavy box, driving a forklift, or transferring a patient from a bed to a wheelchair, you will be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, barring any unusual circumstances. But what if your injury occurs while you are on a break? You accidentally burn your arm while getting a cup of coffee, you go out to lunch and are involved in a car accident, you slip on the floor in your office kitchen while pulling a drink out of the refrigerator – will you receive workers’ comp. benefits under these scenarios?
Let’s look at some of the basic principles of Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law and then discuss a few examples of what would happen if you injure yourself when you are not actually working. In order to be entitled to workers’ comp. benefits, a person’s injury must occur in the course of their employment, which means they must be actually engaged in the furtherance of the employer’s business or affairs, regardless of whether or not the person is injured on the employer’s premises. The PA workers’ compensation law further provides that an employee is engaged in the furtherance of the employer’s affairs where the injury occurs during inconsequential or innocent departures from work during the employee’s regular working hours. The personal comfort doctrine embraces intervals of leisure during the workday; this doctrine recognizes that an employee’s momentary departures from the work routine better enable the person to perform their job.
Why don’t we run through a few examples. If you’re a coffee drinker and a couple, three times a day, you walk down the hallway of your office or work area to your employer’s kitchen to get a cup of coffee, you remain in the course of your employment. Clearly, this is a momentary departure from your work and drinking a cup of coffee will energize you and help you perform your job duties better. If you get distracted while pouring the coffee and splatter some onto your arm causing burns that are so painful, you need to go to the hospital, this will be covered under PA workers’ compensation, and the workers’ comp. insurance company for your employer will be required to pay the bill. This applies even if your burn injury does not prevent you from doing your job.
Let’s look at another hypothetical. You work in a warehouse, clock in when you arrive early in the morning and then clock out after working the first four hours of your shift. You then hop in your car to go out and eat lunch, expecting to return to your job in an hour to clock back in and finish the final four hours of your workday. While you are on your way to the local pizza place for lunch, you are rear-ended by another car and as a result sustain injuries to your neck and back that require you to undergo medical treatment and go out of work. Under these circumstances, it is very unlikely that you would be entitled to workers’ comp. benefits because the accident occurred while you were not on the clock, you were not on your employer’s premises, and this was more than just a momentary departure from your work; you were on an hour-long lunch break. However, you may be able to pursue a personal injury lawsuit against the driver who negligently rear-ended you and caused your injuries; this is outside the realm of workers’ comp., though.
As a Pennsylvania court case illustrates, the situation was different for an employee who worked as a supervisor for her company and was injured when she was not actually performing her duties. She ordered take-out lunch from a restaurant on the first floor of her building. Her intention was to eat at her desk while she continued to work and be available to her co-workers whom she supervised. She took the elevator down to the first floor of her building to pick up the delivery and slipped and fell on the floor. The injured worker in that scenario was found to still be in the course of her employment and therefore entitled to workers’ comp. benefits because the break was considered momentary and given that she intended to return to her desk as soon as she picked up lunch, she was not on a “lunch break.”
Let’s head back to the company’s kitchen. Suppose it’s mid-afternoon at your office and you feel a little sluggish. You head down to the kitchen to pull a bottle of soda out of the refrigerator to give you a caffeine boost. While reaching for the refrigerator door, you slip on a wet spot on the floor and fall, sustaining injuries rendering you unable to work. You are definitely entitled to workers’ comp. benefits because your injury occurred during an innocent, momentary departure from work.
Now we’re going to switch things up. Suppose that a co-worker and you go to the kitchen for a soda break. The two of you start throwing soda bottles back and forth to each other in the kitchen in violation of your company’s policy prohibiting horseplay in the office. While doing this, you crash into the wall, injuring your shoulder. Under this scenario, because your injury happened when you were throwing the bottles back and forth, you deviated from the course of your employment, preventing you from receiving workers’ comp. benefits.
If you have sustained an injury at work, whether it occurred on a break or not, it’s likely that the insurance company will fight your claim. You need an experienced Pennsylvania workers’ compensation lawyer to protect your interests and go toe-to-toe with the insurance company and its lawyer. At Pearson Koutcher Law, workers’ comp. is all we do – each and every one of our work injury lawyers has been representing injured workers for more than 25 years and handled countless cases. We will work hard to make sure you obtain the benefits that you deserve. Please call us today for a free, comprehensive consultation.