Workers' Compensation-Complex Injuries
The law relating to workers’ compensation coverage can become extremely complex when dealing with issues of occupational disease. The run-of-the-mill, on-the-job injury in which an employee falls and breaks an ankle does not involve a great deal of controversy. However, the claim of the employee who over a period of time develops, for example, carpal tunnel syndrome as a result of typing at the keyboard, is harder to classify as being a result of the employment. Different states have dealt with that issue in a variety of ways. Some states provide coverage for these types of repetitive stress injuries or exposure injuries; other states do not.
Another area of significant controversy in regard to workers’ compensation claims is compensation for emotional injuries. In some states, an employee who suffers, for example, a nervous breakdown because of emotional stress on the job may be entitled to the whole range of benefits under the workers’ compensation system. Other states have denied those types of benefits on the theory that the relationship between employment and emotional injury is simply too tenuous and therefore the employer should not be made to bear the burden of the expense associated with that type of injury.
