Remote work has increased in popularity over the last few years and an estimated 12.7% of full-time employees work remotely every day. Working remotely lets you ditch your commute, but it does make some aspects of your job a bit trickier to navigate, including workers’ compensation rights and entitlement. Your trusted Chicago workers’ compensation lawyers at Anesi Ozmon want you to know how to manage a potential workers’ comp claim when you’re not in the office. Here’s what you need to know to increase your chances of a successful claim.
What You Need to File a Claim
As with any workers’ compensation claim, you’ll need to prove that your injuries happened in the performance of your duties. This means you can’t file a claim if you get hurt while cooking lunch or while walking your dog, even if you’re doing those tasks during a Zoom meeting. The injuries must be the result of your work.
Let’s say you work a desk job as a sales representative and develop chronic wrist pain that impacts your ability to use your mouse or keyboard. Because the repetitive use injury happened as a result of your duties, you may be able to file a workers’ compensation claim. Or say you bent down to pick up a box of files that your employer sent you to digitize and hurt your back. This injury happened while you were performing your job-related duties and would likely qualify for workers’ compensation.
How to File a Claim as a Remote Worker
The claims process for workers’ compensation as a remote employee is identical to the one you’d follow if you were working in your company’s office. You’ll want to seek medical attention as soon as you realize you’re injured, even if you think the injury isn’t severe. Let your supervisor know what happened and see if they have a preferred urgent care location or doctor to simplify the workers’ compensation claim. If they do, you can always schedule an appointment with your primary care physician as a follow-up or to get a second opinion.
Once you’re done at the doctor’s office, tell your employer that you’d like to file a workers’ compensation claim and fill out the paperwork as best you can. Once you’ve filled out everything you’re responsible for, your employer will be able to send the form to their insurance company to start the claims process.
Keep in mind that proving that these injuries happened as a result of your job can be tricky when you work from home. Document as many details as you can to strengthen your claim.
Get Help If You Need It
Filing for workers’ compensation when you’re injured as a remote employee can be harder than filing a claim for an injury that happened in the office. If your claim is denied and you believe you’re entitled to compensation, don’t give up hope. Schedule a consultation with Anesi Ozmon today. Our team will review your case and help you decide if you can contest the decision.