Is it legal for a company to force contract workers to buy worker’s comp insurance?
Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at
10:53 am
Robert C Levitra Online asked:
Is it legal for a company to force contract workers to buy worker’s comp insurance? My company threatened all contrated workers that they will lose their contracts if they don’t buy worker’s comp insurance which was not a part of our original contracts. I my choices are sign up for this insurance or lose my contract, isn’t this duress?
Is it legal for a company to force contract workers to buy worker’s comp insurance? My company threatened all contrated workers that they will lose their contracts if they don’t buy worker’s comp insurance which was not a part of our original contracts. I my choices are sign up for this insurance or lose my contract, isn’t this duress?
Tagged with: Contracts • Duress • Worker Comp • Workers Comp
Filed under: Lawyer FAQ
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It depends on the state. It could be because of a law on the books or a law going to be on the books. Laws being made now maybe immediately enforced so one week the companies didn’t have to do something and the next week they were required to do something.
Yes, it is legal for a company require to a contractor to provide worker’s compensation insurance for the contractor’s employees. This is to protect the company from worker’s compensation claims from people who are not their employees. The contractor can NOT charge its employees for the premiums though. This is a common practice in contractor relationships. It is not duress. It’s good buisness practice. If you are an independent contractor and you have no employees, you probably will not be able to buy WC insurance for just yourself. Worker’s Comp is a statutory scheme. Each state has different laws. It really depends on the laws of your state.
If the WC requirement is not in your contract, you may have an action for breach of contract. However, very rarely is duress a consideration in a contract dispute. However, as I said, these types of conditions are common in 1099 situations.