Workers Compensation

• Key point 8-02. All states have enacted workers compensation laws to provide benefits to employees who are injured or become ill in the course of their employment. Benefits generally are financed through insurance premiums paid by employers. Churches are subject to workers compensation laws in most states.

A Pennsylvania court ruled that a disabled worker who forfeited his workers compensation benefits when he accepted a job as a minister was not entitled to a reinstatement of his benefits when he quit his ministerial position for reasons unrelated to his previous disability. In 1973, an individual employed by a secular company sustained a work-related back injury. He underwent surgery for that injury, which caused damages that rendered him disabled. In 1992, the individual returned to work as a minister, and his disability benefits were terminated. He was not an ordained minister ...