WORKERS' COMPENSATION FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIEN

By: NORKA M. SCHELL, ESQ. 


Whether Federal Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) preempts state law awards of workers' compensation benefits to illegal aliens. 


The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request to rule on whether federal immigration law prevents illegal aliens from recovering benefits under state worker's compensation laws.


State legislatures and courts have the authority to determine whether, and under what circumstances, undocumented workers are entitled to workers' compensation benefits for injuries sustained while working illegally. 


Many undocumented employees in the United States work at jobs in very hazardous conditions. As a result, the undocumented workers often sustain injuries or develop diseases and conditions that are related to the workplace and employment. Undocumented employees who injury themselves in workplace can receive workers' compensation benefits.


Workers' compensation is an administrative remedy and it is intended to compensate an employee in a timely manner for injuries sustained in, or related to, the workplace. 


The purpose of worker's compensation is to provide monetary benefits as compensation to an employee who injured himself or herself in the workplace.  


While federal law bans the employment of illegal immigrants by making it unlawful for an employer to knowingly hire or continue to employ an undocumented alien Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), some of the undocumented workers often use false or borrowed identification papers in order to secure employment. 


IRCA does not preempt state workers' compensation law, and thus workers' compensation employee, who is an illegal alien, falls within Workers' Compensation Act's broad definition of "employee," is not disqualified by her or his status as illegal alien from receiving workers' compensation benefits.  


Workers' compensation statute provides that immigration status is irrelevant to eligibility for workers' compensation benefits. Ceasing payment of workers' compensation benefits to undocumented workers would act as an incentive to unscrupulous employers to hire illegal aliens. 


If employers do not want to pay workers' compensation to illegal aliens, they need to stop employing them. For more information about this top, please contact the Attorney Norka M. Schell at (212)564-1589.