Companies across Montana and other parts of the country will often take the time to host events outside their respective buildings. Some may be picnics for their employees and their families whereas others remain focused on work, such as an expo or training seminar. Nevertheless, the risk of injury is still present. Thus, the question begs, if you are injured during one of these invents, can you still file for workers’ compensation?
Volunteer versus work hours
Perhaps the biggest factor that will come into consideration when filing a workers’ comp claim is if the injury occurred during working hours or not. For example, if your company asked you to report to an event during working hours, you may be eligible to receive your worker’s compensation benefits. Now, if you were told about a company picnic occurring on the weekend, you are volunteering to attend, and the event may not fall within the scope of employment. The following includes certain criteria that you can look to see if it falls within that scope:
- Is the event in your place of work?
- Did the company expect or require their employees to attend?
- Does your company benefit from the event?
Employer expectations
Employer expectation is one of the factors that tend to be the most complex. The reason behind that is due to the uncertainty of you volunteering to be at an event or being assigned to be there. In this case, a judge may look at the past actions of the employer. These may include how often the event occurs and any documentation that you were required or allowed to make a choice in the matter.
As you may be able to see from the information above, it can be quite complex to seek workers’ compensation if you are injured at a company event. It is highly recommended to seek the services of an attorney to ensure that you are providing yourself the best fighting chance at receiving your benefits.
