« Iowa Supreme Court Strikes Workers Compensation Commission Administrative Rule |
Main Blog Page
| Return to Work Issues in Work Comp-Part II: FMLA concerns »
In the past few weeks, stories have begun to be published that indicate that employees who work the night shift may have a higher risk or incidence of developing cancer. In fact, working the graveyard shift has now been included as a probable carcinogen
As an attorney in the worker's compensation area of the law, this raises a question for me as to whether night workers will be able to claim their cancer treatment and residual effects of cancer should be compensated under Iowa's workers' compensation system. Iowa has an occupational disease statute that provides that diseases that "have a direct causal connection with the employment" and "follow as a natural incident thereto from injurious exposure occasioned by the nature of the employment" are compensable claims. Iowa Code section 85A.8 further provides that the disease "must appear to have had its origin in a risk connected with the employment and to have resulted from that source as an incident and rational consequence."
The news accounts suggest a probable link between certain types of cancers and working the night shift. If this can be borne out by a preponderance of the evidence, night shift employees may well have worker's compesnation claims if they develop cancer after years of working graveyard hours. Time will tell, but these claims seem likely given the new scientific evidence.
Posted by William H. Grell on December 17, 2007 9:39 AM
|
Permalink
