Background: Workers' compensation acts are designed to protect the worker in the event of injury in the course of his employment. Let's first state some general principles that govern the law and then look at the facts of a case to which the court applied the law. [This case refers to the laws of Pennsylvania, but applicable laws are similar in every state.]
- The Pennsylvania Worker's Compensation Act dictates, "every employer shall be liable for compensation for personal injury to...each employee, [for] an injury in the course of his employment..."
- The term "injury,"... shall be construed to mean an injury to an employee... arising in the course of his employment... shall include all injuries sustained while the employee is actually engaged in the furtherance of the business or affairs of the employer, whether upon the employer's premises or elsewhere.
- The general rule is that an employer is not liable to the employee for compensation for injuries received off the employer's premises while the employee is traveling to or from work.
There are however, some exceptions to this "going and coming" rule:
1) claimant's employment contract includes transportation to and from work;
2) claimant has no fixed place of work;
3) claimant is on a special mission for employer; or
4) special circumstances are such that claimant was furthering the business of the employer.
- Unless an employer shall have knowledge of the occurrence of the injury... no compensation shall be due until such notice be given, and, unless such notice be given within one hundred and twenty days after the occurrence of the injury, no compensation shall be allowed.
Facts: PRN Nursing Agency, although it is not a health care provider, entered into agreements with various hospitals, nursing homes, and private individuals, for the purpose of supplying registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nursing assistants, to those parties as the need arose. At its office in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PRN maintained its records, received telephone calls from institutions and individuals requesting its staff, and dispatched its employees to various locations throughout the Allegheny County area.
PRN did not require its employees to report to its office for assignment; instead, PRN would contact its employees at their homes, one week in advance of the assignment, to inquire as to whether they were interested in accepting a work assignment. When an employee accepted a work assignment. PRN instructed the employee where to report for work, when to report to work, and to arrive in uniform.
Moreover, PRN did not provide transportation to the workplace, it did not reimburse its employees for their travel expenses, and it did not include time spent commuting to and from an assigned workplace in the computation of an employee's gross wages. Employees were paid an hourly rate, calculated from the time they signed out of that workplace. Work hours were totaled by the workplace and forwarded to PRN, who used those figures to compute an employee's gross wages. PRN paid its employees by check, after it made the necessary deductions.
PRN contacted Jo Ann Peterson, a licensed practical nurse and asked if she would work a new assignment on September 19, 1980, at Montefiore Hospital _ the 11:00 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. shift _ and she accepted. PRN did not instruct Peterson to make any stops, to deliver any messages, to pick up any materials, or to perform any service on behalf of PRN prior to reporting to work at Montefiore. In fact, Peterson was free to select any route to and from her worksite.
On or about September 23, 1980, Peterson informed PRN that she had been involved in an accident, she was injured, and she would be unable to work; however, she failed to advise PRN that her injuries were related to her employment, or that her injuries were incurred in the course of her employment. As a consequence, PRN did not file an Employer's Report of Injury. Notice that this was a work-related injury did not come until Peterson filed her claim petition on October 8, 1982, a date greater that two years following the automobile accident.
Based on this evidence, Workmen's Compensation Board concluded that Peterson was not entitled to total disability benefits. However, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overruled the Board and awarded Peterson the benefits.
Court Decision: Reviewing the facts of this record, we note that PRN, an agency in business to supply personnel to health-care facilities on a temporary basis, maintains an inventory of personnel. When Montefiore Hospital contacted PRN, it selected from its personnel list an individual it believed best suited for the particular job and directed her to travel to Montefiore Hospital.
Regardless of PRN's attempt to disguise the true nature of its employees' status, by assigning them to work assignment one week in advance, the facts of the matter remain the same: A temporary employee, who is employed by an agency, never has a fixed place of work. Consequently, when the agency employee travels to an assigned workplace, the employee is furthering the business of the agency. Therefore, we conclude, as a matter of law, Peterson had no fixed place of work, when she was injured, and her injury occurred while she was in the furtherance of her employer's business.
Accordingly, our law requires that Peterson be awarded benefits.
Peterson v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board 528 Pa. 279, 597 A.2d 1116; 1991 Pa.