Under Kentucky’s law, an employee can only successfully sue an employer for an injury that happened in the workplace if the employee can prove the employer deliberately intended for him to be harmed. To date, no employee in Kentucky has ever been able to prove that his employer intended to harm him.
In January 2007, an employee at a machine manufacturing company in Jeffersontown, Kentucky lost both of his arms while attempting to clean a drywall shredder while it was running. Thirty-nine-year-old Billy Parker claims an engineer at Six Sigma, Inc. handed him a screwdriver and told him to clean the machine while it was running, obviously a direct violation of OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) rules. A lawyer for the company states that Parker was not told to clean the machine with a screwdriver while it was running. Parker’s lawyers contend that the company was in a hurry to fix the machine and get it delivered to a customer; they also contend that the machine had malfunctioned several times prior to the day Parker lost his arms.
Parker, a single parent, now faces life as a double amputee with the additional burden of having to decide whether to accept the paltry benefits made available from Kentucky’s Workers’ Compensation or reject Workers’ Comp and sue his employer in an attempt to recover compensation for his catastrophic injuries.
Currently, only twelve states allow injured workers to sue employers if there is credible evidence that the employer made them perform a task knowing it would harm them. In 2004, the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed that knowingly putting an employee in harms way isnt enough to win a lawsuit, even if the death of the worker was a possibility. Considering this, it is not surprising at all that no employee has successfully sued an employer after suffering an injury in the workplace.
In most states, Workers’ Compensation law is designed to quickly provide injured employees compensation for medical bills and lost wages, even if the employee was at fault. In exchange for these often modest benefits, employees give up the right to sue their employer.
In addition to having to learn a whole new way of life, Billy Parker must wrestle with the dilemma of accepting approximately $550.00 a week from workers’ comp that would end when he is eligible for Social Security or to risk it all and sue his employer.
If you or a loved one has been injured on the job and you feel you are entitled to more than what Workers’ Compensation provides, click here to visit the website of experienced Michigan Workers’ Compensation attorney Jay Trucks & Associates, P.C.
