Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

workers compensation

workers compensation

  • A Year Later, Few Essential Workers Have Received Restitution for Getting Covid on the Job

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    Workers at work (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    When state and city health officials closed down non-essential activities last spring to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, they acknowledged the heroics of people who had to continue to report to work, to operate the hospitals, food counters, and buses that kept New York vital. Yet while the vast majority of the likely hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who contracted COVID-19 on the job are eligible for workers' compensation, most have not applied and only a

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  • Essential Workers Continue to Struggle for Covid-Related Workers' Comp and Death Benefits

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    Many frontline workers have sought covid-related workers' comp (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Eight months into the coronavirus outbreak in New York, frontline workers and their families continue to struggle to receive workers' compensation and death benefits for covid-related injuries incurred on the job. A Gotham Gazette analysis of claim data from the Workers' Compensation Board reveals that fewer than 2% of workplace injury claims associated with the virus have had lost wages awarded through the Board, while thousands remain in

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  • Front-Line Workers Must Prove They Contracted Coronavirus on the Job to Receive Workers' Comp

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    Nurses at the frontlines of the coronavirus battle (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


    Nine weeks after Governor Andrew Cuomo closed all but essential businesses and services, many of the state’s essential workers are now finding themselves struggling with their employers and insurance companies for injury benefits related to COVID-19, and for those who die, their survivors are left to pick up the mantle.

    Infected front-line staff, from health-care workers to grocery store clerks, are being asked to prove they contracted the virus on the job in order to

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