Compensation for Workers - Essay Example

Worker`s compensation laws are made to protect employees who get injured, disabled or even killed due to the negligence of the company. The company or the employers are usually held responsible for the behaviour or performance of the employees. This is because it is believed that the employees are working on the orders of the employers or their responsibility depends on the type of their job. Under the federal employment compensation act, those employees who are either disabled or killed during the performance of their duties are provided compensation by the company. (Worker`s compensation, web). Compensation of an employee who has died as a result of the company`s negligence, can be collected by the widow or other family members who were directly dependant on the employee.

Employers are required to pay into the compensation once a month. Employees are not required to pay anything for the compensation fund and therefore, the employers cannot charge it to the employee`s wage. A lawyer is obliged to give clear advice keeping in mind the core values as well as the rules of the company. The advice should also be in the interests of the company. if the company has an employee compensation fund, then the family of the deceased cannot sue the company as long as they get compensation. Because the employee was killed due to the company`s negligence it is evident that the compensation for the dependants of the deceased employee should be enough so as to support them. For the spouse, the company should give twice the amount of the pension which the employee would have received if they were completely disabled (Labor law, Web). This should be paid as a lump sum amount and along with this, almost 30% of the employee`s monthly wage should be paid on a monthly basis if there is no other source of income for the spouse. As the company`s negligence resulted in the death of this employee, it is the responsibility of the company to support the family of the employee.

Compensation should also be given for other dependant members of the employee such as children, parents etc. 10% of the employee`s wage should be given to the children until they reach the age of 18. Other dependants, if they were fully dependant on the employee, should be given the same amount as the spouse. If they were dependant partially, then a one-time payment should be made according to their level of dependence. In all this, it should be kept in mind that the total compensation paid should not be more than 75% of the employee`s wage because the company has to keep running and should take into account its own expenses as well (Labor law, Web). As a lawyer, another piece of advice to the company would be to improve the working conditions and improve precautionary methods so that these accidents and mishaps could be avoided and the innocent lives of the employees could be saved. These accidents also affect the reputation of the company and the motivation of other employees of the company. Read More