Report Claims Law Barring Undocumented Workers From Comp Costly for All

Tuesday, March 5, 2019 | 0

Prohibiting undocumented workers from receiving workers’ compensation benefits for occupational injuries isn’t doing anyone in Wyoming a favor, according to a report by the Gillette News Record.

Denial of WC cuts off workers from medical care and results in employers sometimes paying out seven-figure awards in civil cases, the newspaper reports.

Undocumented workers in Wyoming are generally prohibited from filing workers’ compensation claims.

The report mentions a landscaper whose foot was run over by a lawnmower, but he was denied benefits because of his immigration status. And it argues it’s not just injured workers who are harmed by the lack of coverage.

Construction company Reiman Corp. in 2010 paid $1 million to a worker, injured when an excavator dropped a load of steel on him, after the Department of Workforce Services denied the comp claim.

University of Wyoming law professor Michael C. Duff said that case prompted legislators to revise the law relating to undocumented workers. Rather than explicitly prohibit them from receiving comp benefits, the law allows employers to argue that they reasonably believed a person was authorized to work in the U.S.

If employers persuade state’s monopolistic workers’ compensation agency that they “reasonably” believed documents provided by a worker were legitimate, the worker is entitled to benefits.