Dangerous Occupations & Workers' Compensation

The short answer is no. If you are employed in a dangerous line of work, injuries and accidents may be fairly common but that does not make them any less compensable. No matter how dangerous the work is, or how often people are injured at your place of employment, you are still protected by workers’ compensation laws if you get injured on the job. For example, police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders are constantly exposed to trauma on the job and experience higher instances of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than employees working in other industries; however, this is not a valid defense to these claims. An employer and insurer cannot argue that employees “sign up” for these dangerous jobs and get out of paying workers’ compensation claims.

Minnesota chose to adopt a set of workers’ compensation laws to reduce lengthy and expensive litigation between workers and their employers. The basic spirit of the workers’ compensation system is aimed at holding employers responsible for employees, who were injured at work, regardless of fault. The system is formulaic and specifically defines the types of benefits available to injured employees. In exchange for this no-fault system, employees gave up the right to sue their employers in civil court for their work-related injuries, except on very rare occasions.