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Rice Law Office Blog

This blog reviews important legal issues including: personal injury, employee compensation, workers compensation, discrimination and wrongful termination.

Is COVID-19 an occupational disease under New Hampshire worker’s compensation law?

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Is COVID-19 An Occupational Disease under New Hampshire Worker’s Compensation Law?

As addressed in previous articles, there will be worker's compensation coverage available for many employees who contract COVID-19 at work. The most likely path to this coverage will be with the understanding that the employee became ill due to a neutral risk, but that the employee faced a greater risk of getting ill due to his or her work, as compared to the general public. This is known as the increased risk test and employees who can show this will likely find coverage available for lost wages, medical bills and job protections.

However, healthcare workers who treat patients with diagnoses of COVID-19 may have more than one route to winning coverage should they contract COVID-19. Certainly, these workers should be able to show they are at increased risk of contracting the illness as compared to members of the general public due to the work they do and to the correlating increased frequency of direct exposure to illness, even if no specific transmission of the disease can be traced to a known carrier. If the healthcare worker has had to engage in care that entails unusually contagious situations, such as exposures in the process of resuscitation or intubation or without full PPE, the fact that their risk was increased due to the qualitative nature of their work is clear.

That said, there may be an argument to be made that these workers or those in similar circumstances, may alternatively be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits under NH RSA 281-A:2 XIII: Occupational Disease.

 

RSA 281-A:2 XIII Occupational Disease

In accordance with RSA 281-A:2 XIII “Occupational disease” is “...an injury arising out of and in the course of the employee’s employment and due to causes and conditions characteristic of and peculiar to the particular trade, occupation or employment. It shall not include other diseases or death therefrom unless they are the direct result of an accidental injury arising out of or in the course of employment...”

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Event: March 25, 2020 - New Hampshire Bar Association CLE Seminar “Workers’ Compensation”

Attorney Rice will be joining many of her esteemed colleagues from the New Hampshire Bar Association on March 25, 2020 to present at the Worker’s Compensation seminar to be held at the New Hampshire Bar Association in Concord, NH.

 

Attorney Rice will be speaking on the developing law regarding subpoenas and discovery in Worker’s Compensation cases and will also present information regarding the impact of employment issues on Worker’s Compensation claims including how employers and employees may be affected by New Hampshire’s changing laws regarding recreational and medical marijuana in the workplace.”

 

 

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Disability Retirement Eligibility for New Hampshire Retirement System Members

Disability Retirement Eligibility for New Hampshire Retirement System Members

Need a quick guide to eligibility requirements for Disability Retirement? Here’s a checklist from the New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS) website.

 

Disability Retirement

Members who are no longer able to perform the duties of their NHRS-covered employment due to an incapacity (either mental or physical) that is likely to be permanent may qualify for a Disability Retirement benefit. The Disability Retirement pension will be payable for the eligible member’s lifetime if the member’s disability continues.

Eligibility for Ordinary Disability Retirement (non job-related)

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Worker's Compensation: 5 is the Magic Number

The number of employees at a firm significantly alters the rules and regulations governing the way those employees must be treated.  For workers compensation, the number to know is five.
  
For example, all employers with five or more employees are required to develop temporary alternative work opportunities for their injured employees. This means if an employee is injured on the job and has physical limitations as a result, the employee is entitled to return to work in an accommodated position which takes into account the work injury. If the employer is unable to provide the temporary alternative work then the employee may be entitled to total disability benefits. This makes sense because the employee is capable of working in some capacity and would be back to work if not for the fact that the employer is unable to provide the necessary accommodation.
 
The number five is also relevant when it comes to reinstatement of employees who have suffered a work injury. Employers with five or more employees must reinstate an injured employee back into his or her former position of employment upon request as long as the position still exists, is available and the employee is not disabled from performing the duties of that position with reasonable accommodations. This right to reinstatement extends 18 months from the date of original injury and provides important job protection for injured workers. 
 
There are some exceptions to the right to reinstatement, but for most employees it means that their job must be held open, even if it is temporarily filled by another employee, during the period of absence due to a work injury. 
 
Temporary alternative duty (TAD) provides protection for an employee while the employee is still disabled but able to work in some fashion, while reinstatement provides the opportunity to return to the employee’s original position even if the employee still requires some reasonable accommodation for the employee’s limitations.
 
If you have questions about your right to return to work after a serious work injury, contact Attorney Rice for a free telephone consultation, or visit our website.
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