OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES AND INJURIES

There are two types of Workers’ Compensation claims in New York: accidents and occupational claims. Accidents happen at a specific date and time (I hurt my back at 4:15 pm on July 7).

Occupational claims are diseases and injuries that occur over a period of time that are common (inherent) to your occupation and are caused by your work.“

There are two types of Workers’ Compensation claims in New York: accidents and occupational claims. "Common types of occupational injuries/diseases are asbestosis, silicosis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and hearing loss. (There are actually dozens of occupational diseases listed and recognized by the WC law itself.)

Examples of occupational diseases

• A computer technician develops carpal tunnel syndrome from typing all day.

• A steamfitter develops bilateral shoulder problems from repetitively tightening pipes with his arms.

• A jackhammer operator develops hearing loss from—well, you get the picture. Obstacles when filing occupational disease (OD) cases in New York include the following:

1. Most employers will insist that you put a date of accident on an incident report. Occupational claims don’t have a date of injury until after the Judge decides what the date should be.

2. Many WC doctors don’t understand how to write a proper medical report for an OD case.

3. The C-3 form doesn’t have a section to indicate that you are filing an OD case. (I think it should.)

4. Most OD cases are contested.

5. The time limit for filing an OD case is “two years from the date you became disabled AND knew or should have known that your condition was due to your occupation.” This tricky time limit causes problems in many cases for the injured/ill worker.

6. It’s virtually impossible to handle an OD case without a lawyer.

7. OD cases must be filed against the last employer that caused injury—not the employer that caused the most injury.

8. You may have to have multiple insurance companies come to many hearings to have the judge figure out which carrier is responsible.

9. OD cases take a long time to prove, usually.

10. They’re complicated (see 1–9.) Despite all of these obstacles, you should immediately file both an incident report and a C-3 for an occupational disease as soon as you realize you have one. On the incident report, you can indicate “no date, happened over time, occupational.”

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