TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) - In a groundbreaking development, Arizonans can now apply for worker's compensation if they contract COVID-19 while on the job. This landmark decision stems from a widow's determined fight to secure worker's compensation following her husband's tragic demise due to COVID-19.
Gabrielle Parish has all of the details after an Arizona woman won a lawsuit to receive workers comp benefits after her husband died after getting Covid-19 at work.
Court documents unequivocally state that if someone contracts COVID-19 at their workplace, they are entitled to file for worker's compensation. An essential detail to note is that if a worker succumbs to the virus, their next of kin will receive financial support.
We had the opportunity to speak with Attorney Dennis Kurth, who played a crucial role in this case. He shed light on how it all began: "She filed a work comp complaint with the Industrial Commission of Arizona to secure widow's benefits, and that claim was denied," Kurth explained.
This denial prompted the widow to take legal action against the company, marking the inception of this historic case. Kurth noted, "This is apparently the first case where an insurance company lost and then decided to take it to the court of appeals. They are arguing that COVID-19 should never be covered by workers' comp as a matter of law."
However, there is a catch. If an employee chooses to accept the compensation, they relinquish their right to sue the company, even if they can prove they contracted the virus on the job. Additionally, there's a time frame to keep in mind: workers must file their claims within a year after contracting COVID-19.
Kurth added, "Now that the court of appeals has published an opinion stating that COVID-19 is compensable if you meet the statutory and case law requirements, people may start looking back and thinking, 'Oh, I should have filed a claim.'"
It's essential to emphasize that the person filing for worker's compensation must have contracted the disease at work for this ruling to apply. Otherwise, these provisions do not come into play.
Same. I don't even know how to respond to questions like this. It's such a failure of our governments that people think loss of taste and smell from an infection years ago is the only lasting impact they're experiencing. It's a vascular disease that can damage every organ in the body and we're being forced to experience repeat infections. Unfortunately most won't realize what is happening until after it does, and there's very few treatments and even little care for prevention.
I'm a disabled organizer focused on covid issues, and every day I hear constantly from people about the barriers covid has to their lives. Some are new barriers like new health conditions, increased precarity, and rising debt. Others are finding existing issues that were already hard to navigate become near insurmountable. Many of us haven't had regular healthcare in years due to lack of covid safety or the system's complete overwhelm. So many of us are fighting to just see a dentist without getting covid, and it's nearly impossible.
And this is just from the folks who are aware of why covid should be avoided and what the current situation is, every day I talk to people who have long therm health issues from covid that now have to navigate a world they thought wouldn't affect the. Covid has and will continue to impact every aspect of everyone's life and it sucks seeing so many ignore it.
Edit to add- and yea, at least 7 million people died worldwide with over a million of that just in the US. The amount of people forever missing loved ones is hard to grapple with. A quarter of a million kids lost one or both parents, it's had profound impact to their life trajectories that we'll see for decades, and that's not even accounting for the health implications they'll endure along with the rest of society as we have continued repeat infections.