What you may need to know about collecting Texas workers’ compensation when your Texas City employer labels you as a contractor

Texas City work accident lawyers point out that under Texas workers’ compensation laws, your employer isn’t responsible for ensuring safe working conditions for contractors. The law basically assumes that an independent contractor is in the best position to ensure his own safe working conditions. So a contractor injured at work can’t obtain financial compensation from the employer through workers’ compensation insurance.

But if other third parties contributed to causing an independent contractor’s accident and injuries, the contractor can file civil lawsuits against them to claim financial recompense for the costs of his injuries caused by their negligence. Some of the third parties who could be liable for causing the on-the-job accident include:

• Fellow workers,
• Vendors,
• Suppliers,
• Equipment manufacturers, and
• Property owners or managers.

In cases where the employer actively contributed to causing the accident that injured the independent contractor, the contractor could sue that employer just like any other negligent third party. You would need an astute Texas City work accident lawyer to thoroughly investigate your accident in order to identify all of the liable parties, their roles in causing your injury, and their shares of the fault in the matter.

Texas employers often will attempt to characterize injured employees as contractors because Texas law lets employers off the liability hook in the case of injured independent contractors. A lot of employers try to label their workers as contractors from the moment of hiring. But the actual conditions and circumstances of your job determine your legal status as an employee or a contractor. Job titles and contracts are not enough to establish contractor status. A Texas City work accident attorney familiar with contractor-related work injury claims could help you determine your true employment status. In order to be eligible for benefits from the employer under the workers’ comp system (or to file a lawsuit against an employer that doesn’t carry workers’ comp insurance), you would need to prove the existence of a valid employer-employee relationship.

The issue of the true employment status of injured workers has been litigated over and over again in Texas. So Texas case law has developed a long list of criteria the courts and workers and their attorneys can use to figure out your true employment status. Some of the working conditions that separate actual employees from contractors include:

• Employees are salaried or paid by the hour; contractors are paid by the job.
• Employers withhold taxes and Social Security from the paycheck of an employee, but not from the paycheck of a contractor.
• Employers set working hours of their employees, but not of their contractors.
• Employers provide tools, materials, and equipment for their employees to use on the job; the contractor must provide his own.
• Employees are hired for an indefinite amount of time; contractors are hired for specific projects.
• Employers manage and supervise their employees; they check the work of a contractor upon completion of a job and provide feedback then.
• Employees often must sign documents that limit their legal rights (such as non-compete or confidentiality agreements); contractors do not.
• Employees sometimes must undergo mandatory drug tests; contractors do not.

An experienced Texas City work accident lawyer will be familiar with the criteria used to establish an employer-employee relationship. He could examine the facts and circumstances of your working relationship and help you determine your true employment status and eligibility for workers’ compensation for your injury. Contact the able Texas City work accident lawyers at Denena & Points today for your free and confidential legal consultation.