If you work in the Gig economy, you are not (or so the Giggers contend) an employee, and are therefore not entitled to workers’ compensation (among other employee rights). The same is true if you are any other flavor of…

Bipartisan Consensus?: Businesses (and Others?) May Negligently Expose You to Coronavirus with Impunity — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

On November 1, Federal District Court Judge Cogan, of the Eastern District Court of New York, dismissed the public nuisance suit filed against Amazon in connection with its alleged unhealthy operation of the JFK8 Fulfillment Center in the context of…

Tardy Comment on Dismissal of Amazon Covid-Related Public Nuisance Case in New York — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

A frozen yogurt dealer in Durango, Colorado offered customers discounts for not wearing masks. Someone in town thereafter apparently got upset and busted out the dealer’s front window. He, in response, apparently affixed a sign to his establishment: “I shoot…

Covid Culture Wars and Workers – Stuck in the Middle Again — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

I have arrived at the point in my torts course when we discuss the distinction between “employees” and “independent contractors.” The first thing I will be asking my students is what happens if a California Uber driver negligently, grossly-negligently, or…

The California Proposition 22 Gig Hustle: Ask Not for Whom the Bell Tolls — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

WorkCompCentral has a good story here. (behind a paywall). The “brisk” 92-page opinion is reducible for my purposes to two propositions. First, the executive generically has broad emergency powers. Second, under Kentucky law the legislature has specifically delegated the executive…

Kentucky Supreme Court Upholds Governor’s Emergency Covid Executive Actions Including Creation of Workers’ Compensation Presumptions — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

NASI’s annual “costs and benefits report” is just out and is updated to include 2018 data (the most recent available). Yours truly and Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Judge David B. Torrey–co-editors of this blog–are members of NASI’s workers’ compensation data panel,…

National Academy of Social Insurance Annual Report on Workers’ Compensation — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

One of the more interesting fact scenarios playing out in recent months centers on the scope of workers’ compensation exclusivity: an employee becomes exposed to coronavirus but does not herself become disabled by Covid-19. Instead, she carries the disease home…

Can Workers’ Compensation Covid Causation Presumptions Have Preclusive Effect in Tort Cases? — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

From the front material: Work Law Under COVID-19 Sachin S. Pandya and Jeffrey M. Hirsch (editors) 2020-10-04 Preface This book is a first stab at explaining the ways that COVID-19 has thus far affected work law – mostly in the…

Short Open Source eBook: Work Law Under COVID-19 — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

I am very clear on why certain people do not “understand” COVID-19 workers’ compensation causation presumptions. There is that very old (gendered) Upton Sinclair saw: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon…

Some Quick Thoughts on “Presumptions” — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog

Departing sharply from notions of “liability immunity” member scholars at the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR)—including yours truly—have offered in a new report sustained argument for establishment of a Private Right of Action under the OSH Act. Although not directly…

Center for Progressive Reform Report Recommending an OSHA Private Right of Action — Workers’ Compensation Law Prof Blog