Many Minnesota workers rely on workers’ compensation to pay for any injuries that happened to them while they were at work. While workers’ compensation does cover the majority of workplace injuries, there are exemptions. As an employee, it’s in your best interest to understand what these exemptions are so that you can avoid them at all costs.
Horseplay
Workers’ comp coverage will not cover workplace injuries that were a result of horseplay. Horseplay is typically defined as any behavior that does not further the course of the business, and it is outside the scope of employment. The only exemption in this situation is if an employee that was not directly involved in the horseplay was injured due to it.
Intoxication
When an employee is intoxicated during working hours, it could hinder their ability to file a workers’ compensation claim. Any incident that happens as a direct result of their intoxication can be denied by the workers’ compensation insurance. For example, if an employee who is a driver and intoxicated wrecks the company vehicle while working, they would not be covered. However, if that employee was walking as part of their job and was hit by a car, their injuries would be covered. This is because their injuries were not a direct result of being intoxicated.
Injuries at home
With more and more employers allowing flexible work-from-home environments, the question of what’s covered under workers’ comp has commonly come up. In general, any injuries that happen during the course of regular business hours are considered within the scope of the person’s employment. However, injuries that happen at other hours of the day are commonly not covered because the employee would not be typically working during those hours.
As an employee, you have the right to a workers’ compensation claim in the event that you’re injured while on a job. While it might be easy to generalize that all injuries will be covered, that’s not actually the case. The above are just some of the many exemptions that workers’ compensation insurance companies can use to deny your claim.
