The Virginia worker\u2019s compensation law covers every person who works in the service of another for hire or as an apprentice. This includes aliens and minors. It includes people whether the contract or apprenticeship is in writing or employed and even whether the contact is legal or not. The only exception is for workers who are not employed in the usual course of the trade, business, occupation or profession of the employer. The employer must generally have more than 3 employees regularly employed to run the business. If not, then the employer is not covered under the Act or required to have workers compensation insurance.<\/p>\n
Injuries that can be identified by a single occurrence. Workplace injuries are generally covered in Virginia if:<\/p>\n
Virginia also covers occupational diseases such as respiratory problems or exposure to toxic chemicals. The disease must be due to work though there is no need to show that specific accident caused the disease. Medical doctors usually are called in to show that the diseases were proximately caused by workplace conditions.<\/p>\n
Ordinary diseases generally are not covered unless it can be shown with reasonable medical certainty that the disease resulted from work and not caused outside of work, and that one of the following applies:<\/p>\n
Carpal tunnel syndrome is compensable in Virginia while other types of repetitive stress injuries are not. Hearing loss is also compensable.<\/p>\n
Common types of occupational illnesses include asthma, mesothelioma, bronchitis, chronic encephalopathy, black lung disease and pneumoconiosis.<\/p>\n
Except for carpal tunnel syndrome, repetitive stress injuries are not compesable. Aside from diseases that do not qualify as occupational diseases; back pain, neck pain, and spinal pain are not compensable unless they relate to a specific identifiable accident. In other words, if you\u2019ve been working in a difficult job for many years and you develop a bad back due to that, you do not have a case unless you can pin the pain and problems to one, specific injury and that injury meets the other criteria for a workers comp injury.<\/p>\n
As with other workplace injuries, if a worker suffers psychiatric or emotional problems due to a specific physical injury, employees may be treated by a psychiatrist or psychologist \u2013 and have the bills paid for. Many workers do suffer emotionally if they, for example, suffer an amputation. They are understandably distraught over the loss of the limb, the stigma that they perceive comes with being an amputee, and of course they ponder all the things they may never be able to do again. Depression and anxiety may result, and as long as there is a proper referral by the treating physician, the treatment for such issues is completely compensable. In fact, in some cases, the proper psychiatric treatment can mean the difference between a person\u2019s return to the workforce or complete disability. In addition, sometimes, a good psychiatrist can provide protection against overzealous nurse case managers who try to force injured workers back to work before they are ready.<\/p>\n
In some instances, even if there is not a traceable, physical accident, psychiatric damages might be compensable if they were a direct natural consequence of some work experience – such as seeing a shooting or other violent incident. What is key in those cases is the traumatic event must be outside the normal experience one would expect for such an occupation.<\/p>\n