Safety protocols and policies in workplaces are there for a reason. Sometimes they may seem unnecessarily limiting or meant to address a safety issue that would be highly unlikely to occur. But employers don’t get to pick and choose which protocols to follow. After...
Workers’ Compensation
Illinois construction workers at high risk of suicide
September is Suicide Prevention Month. In support of this cause, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a news release about the shockingly high rate of suicide among male construction workers as compared with employees in other industries....
Can healthcare providers get workers’ comp for PTSD?
The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on doctors, nurses and other front-line medical workers. Every day, they have faced an influx of desperate patients with COVID-19. The efforts to treat those patients – and prevent them from dying – have been extraordinary but...
Interaction of Illinois workers’ compensation benefits and the COVID-19 vaccine, part 2
In part 1 of this post, we talked about Illinois workers’ compensation law and its potential interaction with the coronavirus-vaccine issues. Today we will talk about rare, severe side effects from the vaccine and other more tangential injuries for which employees may...
Part 1: Does workers’ compensation cover injury from a COVID-19 vaccine in Illinois?
In Illinois as of the date of this writing in August 2021, the issue falls into somewhat of a gray area. Scant legal precedent in the state exists to answer this question, but we will share some of our findings in this two-part post. Impact of state statute?...
A wrinkle on workers’ comp injuries: aggravation and exacerbation
Perhaps you are an Illinois worker in seemingly perfect health who suddenly begins experiencing serious shoulder and back injuries that are unquestionably related to on-the-job lifting activities. Your pain is persistent, ongoing and materially debilitating. In fact,...
Illinois summer heat and outdoor workers can be a dangerous mix
Illinoisans are no strangers to extreme weather, enduring risky outdoor conditions in the depths of winter and in the heat and humidity of summer. And it's not getting any better because of the impact of climate change, which is already apparent. According to the U.S....
Preventing falls on Illinois construction sites
According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), falls are the top cause of construction worker deaths. Nationally, 400 construction employees died from falls at work plus many others sustained severe injuries. The DOL suggests that if an employee must perform work...
Illinois Supreme Court hands big win to workers
The Supreme Court of Illinois recently ruled on a case that will impact the future of workers’ compensation cases. The case involved the question of whether or not a worker can receive coverage from common, everyday types of injuries that result from actions like...
New data: Illinoisans lost to work-related fatal injuries in 2019
On March 17, 2021, a press release revealed new federal statistics about 2019 employee deaths in Illinois workplaces. The data included not only people earning wages or salaries, but also those who were self employed. We wrote in this space previously about last...
