As long as an employer is required by law to provide workers compensation benefits, most direct employees (not contracted) will be covered even if work is undertaken off of the employer’s premises. Since workers compensation law involves strict liability rather than depending on determination of fault, lack of control of an outside environment does not influence an employer’s responsibility to provide insurance for medical care, compensation for lost wages, or rehabilitation for an injured employee.

There are countless situations where employees need to travel beyond the boundaries of the employer’s facilities to perform their work. Injuries often occur during the course of travel for meetings, where services are provided at a client’s office or home, or during social events where attendance is required by an employer, for example. Injuries or occupational exposures incurred under these circumstances are generally considered work related under workers compensation law. Individual state laws should be consulted to determine the existence of exclusions.

Some specific situations may exist where activities performed off-site, on an employee’s own time, but resulting in a benefit to the employer, may be compensable if coverage has been approved in advance. An example of this would be during fitness training for employees who are required to stay in shape for their jobs, such as police officers and firefighters. Approval is generally contingent on the employee providing a statement of intention specifying where the training will take place, what it will consist of, and when it will be done. These instances are rare, but an injury nevertheless may result in a paid claim when an employer has entered into a written agreement to provide this extended coverage.

Regardless of the place of an accident or occupational exposure, an employee continues to have an obligation to immediately report when an injury occurs. State laws generally require prominent display of injury reporting requirements in the workplace. Although not working on the employer’s premises, responsibility for being aware of injury/illness reporting procedures still lies with the employee. Failure to report an injury in a timely manner, as specified under a state’s workers compensation law, may diminish the employer’s responsibility or even exclude a claim altogether.