COURSE OF EMPLOYMENT
As set forth in WORKERS’ COMPENSATION acts,
the time, place, and conditions under which an
on-the-job accident occurs. The performance of an
act that an employee might prudently do while in
the appropriate area during working hours.
In the event that an employee causes an
injury to another or another’s property, it is necessary
to ascertain whether the employee was
acting within the course of employment. The
employer is legally responsible for the damages
if the employee caused them while performing a
job. If a driver for a transportation firm is
involved in an accident with a pedestrian, for
example, the pedestrian can sue both the driver
and the firm. Under the doctrine of RESPONDEAT
SUPERIOR, an employer can be held liable
for a TORT, a civil wrong other than breach of
contract, committed by an employee operating
within the scope of the employee’s employment.
Workers’ compensation laws require the
payment of compensation from the employer to
the employee in conformity with a schedule for
a particular category of injury, provided that the
employee is injured during the course of
employment. The course of employment
encompasses the actual period of employment
and the period during which the employee,
while on the employer’s premises, prepares to
commence or to depart from work, such as by
changing clothes. Employer-sponsored recreational
activities are also considered part of the
course of employment when organized, encouraged,
or supported by the employer for business
purposes, such as the promotion of efficiency.
The test is whether the recreation inured to the
employee’s exclusive benefit or whether the
employer had some interest in the activity.
Injuries suffered by an employee while observing,
participating, or traveling to or from recreational
activities sponsored in whole or in part
by the employer but conducted on the
employee’s time and off the employer’s premises
are not compensable.
Where the recreational activity is part of the
employee’s compensation, an injury is compensable.
If an employer, for business reasons,
arranges and pays for an employee to join and
participate in a social or athletic club, the
employee’s activities are an incident of the
course of employment and an injury is, therefore,
compensable.
The periods during which an employee prepares
for work while at home or commutes to
his or her place of business are not within the
course of employment, and, therefore, are not
covered by workers’ compensation laws.
