Did You Get Injured Building A Defense Base Overseas? Your Employer Must Pay You Compensation

Posted on: 28 September 2018

There is a lot of good money available in building defense contracts, particularly if you go overseas. Hundreds of bases need to be built every year and maintained properly to ensure that our military members are safe. But if you are injured during one of these trips and your boss is trying to avoid paying your workers' compensation, you are protected by the Defense Base Act and should receive money.

Builders like you are considered longshoremen, which mean you work overseas on a variety of different projects. Before 2012, the rights of builders like you were often rather hard to define. After all, you would be working in a foreign country, and your employment rights advocates were often confused by their customers. Your employer may be used to this type of scenario and trying to sow confusion after your injury by claiming that you aren't protected by local laws.

While this might be true, that doesn't matter because of the Defense Base Act. When this act was signed into law, it guaranteed certain employment rights to individuals like you. First of all, it defined a defense base as American soil and, therefore, an area where you were subject to the laws of American employment, not those of the country in which you are working.

As a result, any employer who tries to deny you workers' compensation after an injury is likely committing a crime. Criminal acts like these aren't uncommon from employers who are trying to save money or who are working on a defense base far from American soil. They believe that they can confuse the case and cause you to be denied. However, your case can only be denied if your injury was

  • Not connected to work
  • Caused by actions outside of the work area
  • Triggered by your neglect, not that of your employer

For example, if you cut off the tip of your finger because you weren't paying attention to your cutting, you might be denied workers' compensation because of your negligence. In this scenario, your employer, even with the Defense Base Act, is not committing a crime by denying you. These types of cases can be very complex to understand and argue, which is what your employer is relying on to save money.

So if you are in a situation in which your construction employer is trying to deny you workers' compensation, even after you pointed out your rights, it is important to reach out to a Defense Base Act insurance professional. These skilled experts will find a way for you to get your money and protect your rights from an employer who is trying to save money.

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