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Although you typically cannot sue your employer in a personal injury action, there may be other ways to get justice from them when they have forced you to work on a dock in extreme heat. The experienced California Longshore Act maritime lawyers at The Law Offices of Preston Easley, APC can help you explore your options.
Summer in California can mean extreme heat, although work on the docks does not stop. The question is whether you have any recourse against your employer when they have forced you to work outside in extreme heat without following the rules in place to protect you. Regardless of whether California workers’ compensation or the Longshoremen and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act (LHWCA) applies, it is virtually impossible to sue your employer. However, if there is concurrent California workers’ compensation jurisdiction, your employer could be penalized for their conduct.
Learn more about whether you are entitled to benefits and how you can hold your employer accountable for forcing you to work in the heat by scheduling a free initial consultation with a California Longshore Act maritime attorney at The Law Offices of Preston Easley, APC. Call us today at (310) 773-5207.
Lawsuits Against Dockyard Employers Are Usually Off Limits
Whether you are dealing with a federal or state workers’ compensation program, it is very difficult to sue your employer in a personal injury lawsuit (unless you qualify under the Jones Act’s definition of “seaman”). This is the trade-off for the employer’s purchase of workers’ compensation insurance. The law wants to incentivize them to meet their requirements, so it makes employers immune from personal injury lawsuits for negligence in nearly all circumstances. The legal bar is extremely high, and it is only met in very rare circumstances.
At the same time, employers are also subject to strict rules about how and whether employees can work when there is extreme heat. In addition to OSHA rules, California has its own high-heat regulations that govern employment in certain industries. Under the rules, employers must generally provide:
- Drinking water
- Shade
- Cool-down areas/rest;
- Heat-illness prevention procedures and training;
- Acclimatization procedures;
- Emergency response procedures
There are additional protections that are required when the temperature outside is 95° or higher.
For whatever reason, employers may not follow these regulations. They may deliberately expose employees to extreme heat for prolonged periods of time in the name of getting the job done. Employers can face civil enforcement actions that may result in large fines, such as a $276,425 penalty in 2024 against an employer for willful heat-illness violations. However, these are fines, and the money goes to the government and not those workers who were forced to work in these conditions.
Your Employer Could Face an Additional Penalty Added to Your Workers’ Compensation Benefits
There may be concurrent jurisdiction between the LHWCA and the California workers’ compensation systems. Provided that the injury that occurred was land-based and there is a state interest, you may not be forced to file an LHWCA claim. Why this is important is because California may add an additional penalty that your employer must pay when your injury was the result of their willful and egregious conduct.
Specifically, California penalizes employers by 50% when workers have been injured through serious and willful misconduct. Knowingly violating a safety rule and exposing workers to danger and extreme heat could constitute this type of misconduct. Here, the 50% penalty applies to both your medical expenses and lost wages. It would be the employer, and not the insurance company, who is obligated to pay this penalty. The possibility of this enhancement could mean that your attorney advises you to take your case into the state system and not file an LHWCA claim.
Your employer may be ordered to pay the penalty when one of the following is present:
- Actual knowledge of a dangerous, life-threatening condition.
- Deliberate failure to fix the hazard or warn the worker.
- Violating a safety order or Cal/OSHA rule knowingly
It is very rare that you are able to file a personal injury lawsuit against your employer based on their conduct. Even when your employer has forced you to work in a situation that they know to be extremely dangerous for you, it may still be impossible to sue them unless you can prove that they had the intention to cause you injury. The legal standard in California courts is that there must be “extremely unusual conduct outside the employment relationship.” It is very rare that an action in the employer-employee context, even as egregious as forcing workers into dangerous heat, can meet this threshold. Nevertheless, you may have other legal remedies against your employer if you complain about the situation, or you refuse to work as ordered in dangerous heat.
Contact a Longshore Act Maritime Law Firm Today
The California Longshore Act maritime lawyers at The Law Offices of Preston Easley, APC can give you strategic advice about where best to file your claim if you have been injured as a dock worker. Schedule a free initial consultation with our law firm by filling out an online contact form or by calling us today at (310) 773-5207.
Preston Easley is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He served five years of active duty as a Naval officer — three years as a deck officer on a fast frigate and two years as a patrol boat skipper. Mr. Easley also served aboard a tank landing ship in the reserves. Learn more here.
