We get contacted all the time by workers who were placed on a job site by a staffing agency and sustained an injury. They are often told that temp workers aren’t covered under the Illinois Work Comp Act. That simply is not true. The minute you start working, you are covered under the law.
There are approximately 3 million temporary workers in the United States, the most in any time in history. In fact almost 10% of American workers find a job through a temp agency. Sadly many of these works face a big disadvantage because they are not considered employees of the companies that they perform work for since the temp agency pays their wages. So they are more likely than “regular” workers to be injured on the job due to often being placed in unsafe working conditions or having to do grunt work that nobody else wants to do.
The other reason that temp workers get injured a lot is because they are often asked to perform work that is typically done by full time employees who have years of experience and training. Being forced to learn as they go because of seasonal work or special projects often leads to injuries.
If you are one of the many thousands of temp workers in Illinois, know that if you are hurt on the job you have the exact same rights as any other employee. You get medical benefits, lost time payments and a settlement for any injuries related to your job duties. Your limited time on the job doesn’t force you to waive any rights and if you get hurt because you didn’t know what you are doing, you won’t be punished and unable to file a case.
In the big picture for you if you are a temp worker, while there might be a contract that determines if the staffing agency or hiring company has to pay your benefits, what you need to do is not worry about that. If you get hurt, report your injury, get medical attention and then call us to tell us about your case. We will tell you how we can help once we learn the facts of what happened to you. There are no up front fees and we only get paid if we get you a settlement. If we do, like in every case, our fees are 20% of what we recover.
And like in any case, if you are a temp worker with questions about Illinois work comp law or just want to find the best attorney for your case, call us at (312) 346-5578 for a free consultation with a lawyer.
