Back Injuries in the Worker's Compensation Act

Injuries to the back are treated differently.  Generally an accident must occur for an injury to be covered under the Worker’s Compensation Act.  Accident is defined as any “variance” from the normal work routine.  However, the Worker’s Compensation Act does cover injuries to the back when there is no accident or “varriance” from the normal work routine.  These kind of injuries are treated as sudden traumatic incidents.  What this means is that a worker can be performing his or her job without any variance (accident) from the normal routine and if their back is hurt at a specific window of time, then the injury is covered under the act.  So, the take home message is that you don’t have to have an accident to be covered for an injury to your back.