If You Get Sick with COVID-19, Is Your Employer Liable?

Can Your Employer Be Held Liable If You Catch Coronavirus?

If you get sick with COVID-19 (Coronavirus), your employer is liable in some circumstances. Some states have passed laws that extend workers’ compensation benefits to government workers or even to all first responders. In states without such a law, your employer may still be liable if you get sick with COVID-19. In that case, you have to prove that you contracted the virus at work and that contracting the virus was a particular hazard of your employment.

Employee Liability for COVID-19 Through the Workers’ Compensation System

When there is employer liability for an employee contracting COVID-19, it takes the form of workers’ compensation. Workers’ compensation is the system that protects and pays employees when they get hurt on the job. While third-party liability is possible in some circumstances, generally, when we’re talking about employer liability for COVID-19, we’re talking about workers’ compensation laws.

Florida State Employees and COVID-19 Workers’ Compensation

The State of Florida has answered the question definitely in favor of Florida workers. The Division of Risk Management has directed insurers to honor COVID-19 claims for state employees who work on the front lines. If you are a frontline employee and you contract COVID-19, there is a good chance that your claim will be covered. First responders and healthcare employees who work for the State of Florida are covered by workers’ compensation laws.

RELATED: Florida Workers’ Compensation Laws and Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Florida Private Sector Employees and COVID-19 Workers Compensation

For private-sector employees, liability for workers who contract the virus isn’t as clear. Without the guidance of a state directive, it is unclear how current laws might apply to this new situation. While it seems unlikely that employers in the private sector have workers’ compensation liability, it might be possible that’s the way the courts will see it.

Florida spells out employer liability for occupational diseases in Florida law 440.151. The law says that the nature of the employment must be the major contributing cause of the disease for the employer to be liable. In other words, ordinary diseases of life are not covered. Florida law 440.151(2) says that there is no employer liability for common diseases that the general public is exposed to through daily life. There must be substantially higher incidents in employees than there are in the general population in order for employer liability to apply.

Example of COVID-19 Sickness and Employer Liability

For example, you may be an employee of a large grocery store. Because of your work, you have frequent contact with the public. You may be able to prove that the rate of COVID-19 infection among customer-facing employees is higher than the incident rate among the general public. In that circumstance, there’s a possibility that you can prove that your infection is work-related. The same would be true for someone who works as a nurse or works in a senior home. Anyone who has a high-exposure risk because of their employment may be able to prove that contracting the virus is not an ordinary disease of life.

Workers’ compensation was never meant to cover common illnesses that we contract from one another. It isn’t supposed to cover things like the common cold or flu. So it might seem like COVID-19 is undoubtedly not covered by workers’ compensation. Employees may indeed have a hard time proving their case for employer liability for COVID-19. However, the Coronavirus is not the common cold or flu. It’s a new danger.

The way that the State of Florida and the entire United States have responded to the crisis is unprecedented. Also, the State of Florida has changed its policies for government workers by stating that claims for state front line employees will be covered.