What Restaurant Employers Should Know About Workers’ Compensation Claims

It’s every restaurant owner’s nightmare: a staff member is injured on the job. Perhaps they suffer a nasty hand injury while slicing vegetables, or maybe get a nasty burn. The injury might not even happen in the kitchen – they could slip on a wet floor, or even be assaulted. In many cases, an injured employee will have a right to compensation. This is why you pay into your state’s workers’ compensation fund or self-insurance. (All states, except Texas, require employers to have some kind of workers’ compensation coverage.)

What Types of Injuries Are Covered by a Workers’ Compensation Claim?The illnesses and injuries covered by workers’ compensation vary between states. In all cases, the illness or injury needs to be something that was caused by the job or working conditions.  This means that your employees can’t put in a claim for something that’s unrelated to work. For instance, if one of your employees develops a heart condition and this has no relation to…