Employee Detours and Deviations From Business Trip
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| Employees may be called upon by their employer to travel for a business purpose. Such travel is generally considered to be in the course of employment and, if injured, the employee will be entitled to workers' compensation benefits. However, if the employee deviates from the business trip route for a personal reason, he will not be covered by workers' compensation until he returns to the business trip route. Notably, if the deviation is basically inconsequential, the employee may still recover benefits if injured on the minor detour.
It is immaterial that the employee intends to deviate from the business route once he reaches a certain point. The question of compensability and the analysis of the facts focus on where the employee was injured. In other words, just because the employee intended to take a detour to visit a friend, if he was injured before he reached the point of departure from the business route, his injuries would be covered by workers' compensation.
Not all jurisdictions require the employee to regain the business trip route for workers' compensation protection. Some states merely require the employee to have completed the personal nature of the detour and be moving toward the business trip destination. If the employee's trip began as a personal excursion, a deviation for business purposes is considered in the course of employment and the employee would be entitled to workers' compensation benefits if injured on any part of the detour. Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |