Injured On Your Lunch Break?
Contrary to popular belief, not every injury sustained at work in Florida will be eligible for workers’ compensation. If a person is injured on their lunch break, determining whether the injury is compensable can be complex – but the right attorney can help to clarify matters.
Is It Within The Scope Of Your Employment?
Florida’s workers’ compensation system is designed to provide benefits for employees who sustain an injury on the job that is not caused by their own negligence. This seems fairly straightforward, but “on the job” is a term that has multiple meanings – a more accurate way of explaining this is that workers’ compensation is meant to cover an injury sustained while a person is acting within the scope of their employment.
The ‘scope of employment’ is a doctrine which intends to determine when a person is truly on or off the clock. In order for an employee to be acting within the scope of their employment, they must be at a time and place where they would have been expected to be, and they are at least tangentially acting on the business of their employer. What this means for those injured on their lunch break is that they must show some kind of connection to their work in order for such an injury to be covered.
On Or Off-site?
As one might imagine, a direct connection to one’s work exists if an employee is injured on their work site – for example, a slip and fall on a wet cafeteria or break room floor. If a person’s employer has control over the site where they were injured, the injury is generally covered under workers’ compensation, though there are always exceptions.
Things become more complex if the injury occurs off-site – but even then, it may be possible for an injury to be covered by workers’ compensation. One of the most common scenarios for such an event is when an employee is at a business lunch – since it is furthering their employer’s business (at least in theory), injuries sustained in such an environment are usually compensable.
Contact An Orlando Workers’ Compensation Attorney
Being injured at work can be difficult to deal with, but being injured on one’s lunch break can be more frightening, because coverage for your medical bills is simply not guaranteed. That said, an Orlando workers’ compensation attorney from the Hornsby Law Group can help you get the benefits you deserve. Contact our office today to schedule a consultation.
