Not everyone who loses their job is entitled to unemployment compensation. There are two ways of becoming unemployed, you either get fired or you quit.
When you are fired or layed off because of unintentional actions or financial reasons, you may still receive the benefits.
However, gross misconduct like sexual harassment, frequent unexcused absences, intoxication while at work disqualifies the individual.
When you quit for a good cause, you can claim for the compensation. By good cause I mean leaving without hurting yourself or your employer. It may be as a result of relocation of a spouse to a new town or city, unhealthy working conditions among others
Employers have to clearly identify employees and independent contractors to avoid fines by IRS and the Department of Labor.
This is because, despite similarities in their job description, there are vital legal differences key being that employment and labor laws don’t apply to the independent contractors.
Employees’ compensation is covered under Medicare withheld by employers from wages paid. However, since independent contractors don’t have income taxes and Medicare withheld, it disqualifies them for compensation.
Therefore, in case the person is injured the burden rests on the employers to have their own workers’ compensation policy for the independent contractors. This is mandatory as one will be held responsible for any injuries at work.
Workers compensation ensures all injured employees at work have their medical expenses covered and wage-loss benefits reimbursed.
This is without regard to their personal negligence as the cause of the accident. It doesn’t matter whether the employee is at fault at the time of the accident or not.
Therefore, the systems of compensation are considered as “no-fault” systems. However, injuries that are self-inflicted like when an employee gets into a fight, due to intoxication, when violating company policy are not covered by workers’ compensation.
It is true that workers compensation system is not always beneficial to workers due to the following reasons; when the cost of compensation increases, a lot of time goes into court process leaving the injured workers waiting even for years to be compensated.
The long wait is painful and can lead to death if severe accidents are not attended to in time. Most recipients of the compensation don’t realize their full potential so as to show how serious the impact of the accident was. Others don’t have the urge to work anymore after receiving compensation money.
