Why is it important for employers to explain to employees how workers’ comp insurance works? Because if employers don’t provide explanations, lawyers looking for business will.

Safety News Alert recently received a press release from a law firm that specializes in personal injuries, touting its new Web site — a Workers’ Compensation Information Center.

The new Web site includes “an explanation of the challenges facing injured workers and the role of a workers’ compensation attorney in ensuring that injured workers receive benefits.”

Employees who go to the Web site will read this: “One of the reasons that it is important to contact a Florida workers’ compensation attorney is that workers’ compensation insurance companies have very little incentive to act in the employee’s favor; when an injury is proven to have taken place, the insurance provider stands to lose money. The way they infer workers’ compensation laws can be the difference between a denied claim and an injured employee being granted what they deserve. This means that you may not receive all the money that you legally deserve.”

And the Web page includes links to the sponsoring law firm.

Add this Web advertising to the barrage of ads on daytime TV for personal injury lawyers and the misinformation provided by other employees, and it’s no wonder why some employees will be convinced to get a lawyer and draw out questionable cases.

How can you fight this? Give employees an employer’s view of the workers’ comp system. Explain that your first priority is to prevent them from getting injured, but if they do, workers’ comp is there to protect the employer and employee.

You can say that if your company can keep its workers’ comp premiums down, it’ll benefit all employees just as any other cost-saving measure does.

Do you talk to employees about workers’ comp before it’s needed? Let us know in the Comments Box below.

Tags: Lawsuits, lawyers, Workers' comp