COVID-19 Claims Under The Longshore And Harbor Workers' Compensation Act

(April 2021) -  With the continued spread of COVID-19 and the likelihood of burgeoning claims, the Department of Labor has directed some guidance to employers and their insurance carriers for handling COVID-19 claims by longshoremen. Obviously, the looming issue is how can an employer know that that an employee contracted COVID-19 on the job rather than in some other activity or at some other location. Unfortunately, the Department of Labor's guidance is not particularly beneficial for employers. The Department of Labor's guidance provides that injured workers who claim a COVID-19 exposure at work need only establish their claim by prima facie evidence. Once that is done – in other words, a prima facie showing that the virus was contracted at work – a presumption is established that the illness was contracted on the job "in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary." This presumption arises out of Section 20 of the Longshore Act.