In many cases in which a Lincoln, Nebraska, construction worker gets hurt on the job, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will be involved in the ensuing investigation. In some cases, OSHA may even fine or impose other penalties on an employer if the accident violated federal safety regulations or standards.
OSHA exists to ensure employers in Nebraska and throughout the country fulfill their moral and legal responsibility to keep their workplaces reasonable safe for employees. When an employer fails in this responsibility, serious or even fatal workplace accident can result. This is particularly true at construction sites where, as a previous post on this blog reported, workers face a number of hazards, all of which can cause debilitating injuries or even death.
However, it is important for Nebraska construction workers and others who have been injured on the job to recognize that OSHA and workers' compensation are not one and the same. Specifically, OSHA does not have to be involved in an investigation at all, much less have to impose a fine on an employer, before an inured Nebraska worker can claim workers' compensation for his or her construction worker injuries or other injuries, as the case may be.
The reason for this is that Nebraska's workers' compensation system is not based on fault, meaning an injured worker does not have to prove his or her employer made a mistake or violated a safety standard before the worker can get benefits. A worker well even be at fault for his or her own injury, yet he or she still gets compensation.
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