South Carolina Worker Hurt at Job, Housing Covered by Insurance

A seasonal worker is entitled to workers compensation benefits for an injury sustained after falling at a housing complex supplied by his employer, the South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled.

The court sided with the migrant worker who argued the so-called “bunkhouse rule” that acknowledges there are situations where employees are essentially required to live in employer-sponsored housing in order to do their job. Since “the source of the injury was a risk associated with the conditions under which the employees were required to live,” the injury was covered by workers compensation, the Supreme Court held.

The South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission had denied Frantz Pierre’s benefits for an injury he sustained while employed as a migrant worker with Seaside Farms, Inc. at its tomato packing facility. Pierre fractured his right ankle when he fell on a wet sidewalk at housing supplied by Seaside Farms. The terms of employment provided that Seaside Farms would supply housing to the migrant workers at no charge. Most of the employees working in the packing facility resided at the Land’s End housing, about five miles from the packing facility.

The Supreme Court noted that the company president testified that he provided housing to the workers as a cost of doing business because the workers had no other place to stay and his business could not operate if he did not provide the housing.

Topics Workers' Compensation Talent South Carolina