Legal Definitions - employers' liability

Employers' liability refers to the legal responsibility that employers have for injuries, illnesses, or deaths suffered by their employees while at work. While many workplace injuries are covered by "no-fault" workers' compensation insurance, which provides benefits regardless of who was at fault, employers' liability specifically addresses situations where an employer's negligence or wrongful act directly caused harm. In such cases, an employee might be able to sue their employer for damages beyond what workers' compensation typically covers, or for types of harm not covered by workers' compensation, such as pain and suffering. This area of law ensures employers maintain safe working environments and can be held accountable when they fail to do so.

Here are some examples illustrating employers' liability:

• Example 1: Negligent Maintenance Leading to Injury
  A warehouse employee suffers a severe back injury when a forklift, which the employer knew had faulty brakes and had neglected to repair despite multiple reports, malfunctions and causes a collision. While workers' compensation would cover the employee's medical bills and lost wages, the employee might pursue an employers' liability claim. This claim would seek additional damages for pain and suffering, long-term disability, and other losses not fully compensated by workers' compensation, arguing that the employer's direct negligence in maintaining equipment led to the injury.

• Example 2: Occupational Illness Due to Unaddressed Hazards
  An administrative assistant develops a chronic respiratory condition after several years of working in an office building with a known, untreated mold infestation. The employer had received numerous complaints from employees about the mold and its health effects but failed to take any action to remediate it or provide alternative workspaces. In this scenario, the employee could bring an employers' liability claim, asserting that the employer's negligence in providing a safe working environment directly caused their long-term illness, seeking compensation beyond typical workers' compensation benefits for their ongoing health issues and reduced quality of life.

• Example 3: Injury from Intentional Disregard for Safety
  A factory worker is severely burned when a supervisor, in an effort to speed up production, intentionally overrides a critical safety interlock on a high-pressure machine, causing it to malfunction and spray hot chemicals. Because the supervisor's action demonstrated a deliberate and reckless disregard for safety, the injured worker might be able to bypass the exclusive remedy of workers' compensation. They could instead file an employers' liability lawsuit directly against the company, seeking substantial damages, including punitive damages, which are typically not available through workers' compensation, due to the employer's gross negligence or intentional misconduct.