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Off-Premises Injuries While Traveling to and From Work

Normally, if an employee is injured while traveling to or from work, such injury is not compensable unless the injury occurred on the employer's premises. However, when the travel itself is a major component of the services provided by the employee, the fact that the injury occurred off the employer's premises will not preclude compensation.

Traveling Employees

Generally, if an employee is required to travel as a part of his employment, he is covered by workers' compensation for the duration of the trip. There is a distinct exception to this rule when the employee markedly departs from the business trip to attend to a personal matter. In those jurisdictions following the majority rule for compensability above, an employee will usually be covered for an injury resulting from, for example, sleeping in a hotel or eating in a restaurant.

"Benefits" Under the Black Lung Benefits Act

Once eligibility under the Black Lung Benefits Act has been established, a totally disabled miner will receive benefit payments equal to a portion of the monthly pay rate for federal employees. Should the miner succumb to the pneumoconiosis disease, his surviving widow will be entitled to the same monthly benefit payment. If the miner has no surviving widow, his single surviving child will also receive the same monthly benefit amount. The benefit amount increases incrementally with each subsequent surviving child. Finally, if there is no surviving widow and no surviving children, the miner's dependent parents or siblings will receive a monthly benefit amount at the children's rate. The receipt of payments pursuant to workers' compensation or unemployment insurance may reduce these beneficiary amounts.

Claims under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act

According to the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP), an employee who may be covered by the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act should take certain actions if he is injured.

Disfigurement

Though not universal, awards for disfigurement are allowed in the majority of states. Usually, disfigurement awards are arbitrary in nature in that there is a somewhat fixed sum allocated, which can vary by jurisdiction. Unlike other awards, those for disfigurement are not normally based on the employee's loss of wages. However, the language in some state statutes is such that compensability will only be found when the disfigurement would impact the employee's earning capacity or general employability.