COVID workers comp claims for essential employees
- There has been an increase in claims filed for employees who allege they have contracted COVID-19 in the course and scope of their employment.
- These COVID-19 claims include a “rebuttable presumption,” which means it’s an assumption made by a court that is taken to be true unless someone proves otherwise.
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a bill addressing workers’ compensation benefits for COVID-19-positive employees who classify as “essential employees” in New Jersey.
- The essential worker is defined as working in the public or private sector who, during a state of emergency, is a public safety worker or first responder, or involved in providing medical and other healthcare services, among other responsibilities.
Home health agencies misclassified 66 Workers
- The California Labor Commissioner’s Office cited Angel Connection Nursing Care and Angel Connection Nursing Services for improperly misclassifying 66 home healthcare workers as independent contractors.
- Investigators found that Annabelle Ricasata, owner of Angel Connection, reportedly misclassified the employees to avoid paying required wages, workers’ comp insurance and payroll taxes.
- The companies were ordered to pay more than $1.8 million for the wage theft violations, including failure to pay 22 workers overtime wages.
- One of the businesses also reportedly failed to maintain workers’ comp insurance or provide proper itemized wage statements for the misclassified employees.
City employee attacked by a utility customer
- A city worker in Purcell, Oklahoma, is recovering after being attacked by a utility customer.
- The city utility customer had a dispute over whether their utilities were on or off.
- The exchange escalated into a physical altercation with one of the city employees at City Hall.
- There are reports the dispute over a supply problem within the customer service area turned violent.
Hospitalizations after COVID vaccines
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data revealing about 782,900 people has to seek medical attention, emergency room care and/or hospitalization following COVID-19 vaccination.
- Another 2.5 million people reported needing to miss school, work or other normal activities.
- The most commonly reported symptoms were chills, swelling, joint pain, muscle or body aches, headache, fatigue and general pain.
- About 4.2 million of the symptoms were of severe severity.