Recently in Workers' Compensation Category

At a time when Texas is laboring with a number of wild fires, the firefighters have been busy. Busy enough to earn overtime. And now an entire group of firefighters from Refinery Terminal Fire Company, the largest nonprofit industrial firefighting group in the country, has filed a federal class action asking to be paid overtime, reports Courthouse News Service.

Refinery Terminal Fire Company apparently failed to pay the firefighters time and a half for hours worked in excess of forty hours per workweek, alleges the complaint. The Refinery Terminal firefighters allege that they were required to be "on call" for 24 hours at a time but did not receive compensation for the time they were on call past 40 hours a week.

“All hands on deck!” also includes the Captain. And sometimes it is the Captain on the deck that gets injured.

In a case filed in a U.S. district court in the Southern District of Texas, a Louisiana sea captain claims he was injured when a rope being used to lower certain equipment broke and caused him to fall down the stairs, landing on equipment in the engine room belowdeck. Then when he tried to continue working he slipped and fell on the slippery deck, reports the Southeast Texas Record. The ship on which the alleged injury occurred was an M/V Dorado. Here is one flying the Latvian flag parked in Iceland.

Although this looks like a standard worker’s compensation issue, since it occurred on a ship, which raises issues of maritime time, the claim has been filed under the Jones Act.

At the age of 69, Sue Jeans allegedly lost her job as a clerical office worker after nearly two decades of employment with Central Title Co., reports The Southeast Texas Record. Jeans claims that she was terminated from her position in January and then replaced by a younger employee. For this reason, Jeans feels that she's been a victim of age discrimination and has filed a lawsuit against Central Venture, which does business as Central Title.

Not only is Jeans claiming age discrimination in her lawsuit, but she also alleges that the defendant retaliated against her after she filed a workers' compensation claim for an on-the-job injury.

Under federal law, all employees have rights when it comes to workplace safety. Injured employees are usually able to receive workers' compensation insurance, no matter who was at fault for the work-related injury.

Ultimate Conroe reports that a former employee of Anderson Pollution Control recently filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging workers' compensation retaliation. Employee James Howes claimed that he sustained severe head and neck injuries while working at a plant in Pasadena and that he was told by his employer not to file a workers' compensation claim.

One employee of B&E Resources has had to go through a great deal of legal trouble to receive workers' compensation. The Southeast Texas Record reports that the plaintiff, Webster Perkins, sustained work-related injuries while working for Professional Business Solutions, B&E Resources and Breckenridge Enterprises on July 24, 2008.

After the injury, Webster Perkins filed a workers' compensation claim with the Texas Workers' Compensation Commission, but the Texas Department of Insurance-Workers' Compensation Division filed an appeal. The appeals panel reportedly found that the man was not considered an employee of Breckenridge Enterprises at the time of the accident.

A man from Orange County believes that he was wrongfully terminated from his position at KDR Supply after he filed for workers' compensation benefits. The Southeast Texas Record reports that the former employee is now firing back at the oil company with a complaint that has been filed in Jefferson County District Court by a Texas employment lawyer.

The former KDR Supply employee, Darin Linscomb, claims that he requested workers' compensation benefits after he sustained injuries while working for the company. He says that he was then terminated because of the workers' compensation claim.