The courts have not been supportive of insurers when it comes to one of the most heated hot-bottom issues in politics today–the implications of illegal immigration–ruling that undocumented employees are entitled to workers' comp benefits if hurt on the job, even if they forged their identification papers. Even for someone like me who is against mass deportations and in favor of reasonable immigration reform, this seems to go too far.
As reported by our own Dan Hays, the latest ruling came earlier this year when the South Carolina Supreme Court said iIlegal immigrants injured on the job are entitled to workers comp benefits, even though the court acknowledged that the claimant had tricked his employer into hiring him with fraudulent documents. (To read the complete article, click here.)
The court, reported Mr. Hays, ruled unanimously that providing benefits to undocumented employees does not conflict with federal law–the Immigration Reform and Control Act. Indeed, the court pointed out that the law contains no specific provision forbidding workers compensation benefits to illegal alien workers.
Recommended For You
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
