Did Factory Job Produce Manager’s COVID-19 Infection?

What Do You Think?

White Plains, NY (WorkersCompensation.com) -- As COVID-19-related workers’ compensation appeals make their way through the New York courts, it becomes somewhat clear what it takes to establish or defend against such a claim. 

An illustrative case involves a manager for a badge factory who worked in quality control and tested positive in April of 2020. There were about 30 to 35 employees in that area of the building. He aso sometimes moved around the factory, which, as a whole, contained about 100 employees.

When the pandemic began to sweep through the region in March and April 2020, the company provided employees masks, gloves, and goggles, and required them to socially distance. Still, around April 10, the manager began to experience symptoms and tested positive on April 21.

The Workers’ Compensation Board denied the manager benefits based on the illness. He challenged that decision in court, pointing to the fact that there were around 100 people working in the factory. 

There were two employee who tested positive prior to the manager’s diagnosis. He noted that another employee tested positive in March, although he didn’t come into contact with that person. He did have contact with a person from another department who tested positive 17 days prior to his own positive test. 

The court explained that a claimant may show that a COVID-19 injury arose in the course of employment by demonstrating either:

1. A specific exposure to COVID-19 at work; or
2. Prevalance of COVID-19 in the work environment so as to present an elevated risk of exposure constituting an extraordinary event.

Did the manager contract the virus in the course of employment?

A. No. He didn’t point to an incident in which he was exposed to the virus at work and only a couple people tested positive in the weeks leading up to his positive test.

B. Yes. He was working in a crowded factory during a period when the pandemic was sweeping through New York.

If you selected A, you agreed with the court in Hererra v. American Badge, Inc., No. CV-23-0928 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. 11/07/24), which held that the manager didn’t establish that he contracted the virus at work.

The court pointed out that the employee who tested positive in March had no contact with that manager. Further, employees were provided masks, gloves and goggles, and social distancing was mandated.

“Notably, the employer's witness testified that, out of the 100 employees working at the factory during the relevant times, only one that claimant may have had contact with had tested positive for COVID-19 prior to April 10, 2020, an employee who worked in a different department than claimant and tested positive 17 days prior to the onset of claimant's symptoms,” the court wrote.

The court affirmed the Board’s conclusion that the manager failed to show that he contracted COVID-19 in the course of his employment This was because he failed to demonstrate either a specific exposure to the virus at work or that the virus was so prevalent at work as to create an elevated risk of exposure.

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