On a normal workday, most corporate employees will sit at their desks, maybe attend some meetings – utterly routine, un-dangerous stuff. But at company outings, all bets are off: there may be softball or volleyball, rock-climbing or go-carting, even white-water rafting or skiing.
If someone gets injured, do you know who’ll pay the bills?
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A basic knowledge of the law and some simple precautions, local experts say, will protect a company from ending up with a workers’ compensation claim for that rock-climbing fall, twisted ankle, or in the worst-case scenario, severe and disabling injuries.
Rhode Island is one of several states where courts have recognized workers’ comp claims at company-sponsored recreational activities. In New Jersey, the state Supreme Court last year found a man could collect workers’ comp benefits for injuries sustained while driving a go-cart, at his employer’s insistence, during a company outing. In Oklahoma, a woman who was encouraged by a superior to participate in the annual “Corporate Challenge” and hurt herself in a tug-of-war competition was found to be eligible for benefits.
In Rhode Island, the crucial case is Beauchesne v. London, heard by the state Supreme Court in 1977. Albert Beauchesne had gotten intoxicated at a company-sponsored Christmas party and fell from a window, severely injuring himself. The court ruled he was entitled to workers’ comp benefits because the party was held on company time, employees were being paid, and attendance was expected.
Subsequently, in 1984, the General Assembly clarified the legal distinctions between eligible and non-eligible cases, exempting any injury or death “occasioned by or during” a worker’s “voluntary participation in employer-sponsored social or non-professional athletic activity.”
But how often do these cases come along anyway?
Michael D. Lynch, vice president for legal services at The Beacon Mutual Insurance Co., the state’s largest workers’ comp carrier, said they’re relatively rare. In 20 years, he said, he’s dealt with “a handful,” though he does get about a half-dozen related questions every year.
Michael A. St. Pierre, a Warwick lawyer who often represents workers’ comp claimants, agreed that such cases are rare, though not for lack of potentially eligible injuries.
“I would think in most cases, (workers) don’t even give a second thought,” St. Pierre said. “That may be comp, but that person who got injured may have no idea that it’s actionable. So it goes to United or Blue Cross or Aetna.”
And even if the thought occurs to a worker, St. Pierre added, “if they’re working their way up the company, if they injure their little toe, they’re not going to make a cause célèbre out of it.”
That said, the case law has continued to build up, St. Pierre said. After a group of Applebee’s employees got in a car accident on the way back from a training seminar in Massachusetts to which they’d been sent, for example, the workers’ comp statute was found to apply.
So what can a company do to avoid workers’ comp liability with those riskier, crazier activities that corporate outings can involve? Just pay attention to the law, Lynch and St. Pierre said – and structure your plans accordingly.
“As a company, you’d want to make it clear-cut that this is a fun, purely social type of activity,” St. Pierre said.
“Make it abundantly clear that it’s strictly voluntary – have some fun.”
It’s also best to avoid alcohol, Lynch said, because that increases the risk of injury.
But don’t let a small risk keep you from sponsoring a good event, said William K. Austin, a principal of Austin & Stanovich Risk Managers.
Risk management is a balancing act, Austin said, to determine how much risk you’re willing to assume to reap certain rewards. Even if an employer runs some risk of getting sued for injuries, Austin said, he may decide it’s “more than offset by possible rewards” – to “create good will among employees, better teamwork among co-workers and enhance overall employee productivity.”
