What Is Concurrent Employment?
Concurrent employment can happen in one of two ways. Either you are employed in a role that involves carrying out several personnel assignments with one organization, or you work in two or mores roles with different companies.
An example of the latter case is where you have a full-time job during the week, and work part-time at the weekend.
Workers’ Compensation and Concurrent Employment
Concurrent Workers’ Compensation cases are very complex. You need to have a lot of proof and details of employment to show you had both jobs at the same time. The case must also go before a judge.
What happens if you work two different jobs concurrently and you get injured while working one of them? Or even worse, what happens if you have two jobs and you are injured while working at the one where you earn less?
Are you entitled to Workers’ Compensation to cover medical expenses and lost wages for just the job you were injured at? Or are you entitled to lost wages for all of your jobs?
We just successfully dealt with a case like this for one of our clients.
What Happened?
Our client was employed concurrently in two different jobs. At his main job he earned aprroximately $538 per week. For his concurrent job, he worked in a supermarket and made approximately $364.50 a week.
In the supermarket, our client worked as a meat wrapper. While he was lifting boxes of frozen chicken he felt a pain in his left arm. This pain turned out to be a serious injury, where our client had a 20% loss of use in his arm for 62.4 weeks. This injury meant he was unable to work either of his jobs.
The Case
As our client was injured at his second job where he earned less money, this could have led to a serious problem (financially!).
Had he gone through the normal Workers’ Comp claim process, he would only have been entitled two thirds of his weekly income from his supermarket job.
As he worked two jobs, it was not the responsibility of his main employer to pay Workers’ Compensation benefits. But equally, our client didn’t deserve to be punished for being injured while doing an honest days work.
Luckily for our client, he worked for Stop+Shop and was a member of a Local 342 UFCW. The Local 342 UFCW suggested he talk to us to see if he was entitled to compensation for his lost wages from his main job.
The Result
As we already said, concurrent Workers’ Compensation cases are very complex. Firstly, they have to take place before a judge. Secondly, our client had to prove (with pay stubs and letters from his employers) that he worked both jobs at the same time.
By working with us, our client was able to prove that he was employed concurrently. Instead of receiving just $15,166.63 for lost wages from his second job, he received a total of $37,566.63 for the time he was unable to work. That’s a total of $22,400 he was entitled to, but would not have gotten had he not came to us.
If you have been injured at work and have a similar case, you may be entitled to more benefits than you realise. Having a lawyer on your side that can gather all of the facts and figures of your case, will greatly increase your chances of being successful.
See more of our Workers’ Compensation success stories.
Disclaimer: For informational purposes only. This is not a substitute for legal advice. If you need legal advice please contact us.
