Opinion ID: 1696996
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Factual supplement

Text: For a complete understanding of the basis for this dissent, it is useful to supplement the facts set forth in the majority opinion. In 1985, Alcozer and his family moved from Texas to Northern Minnesota where he worked as a farm laborer in the Red River Valley. In December 1996, Alcozer and his family, which included his wife and eight children (ranging in ages from 2 years to 15 years), were living in Crookston and receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) payments of $1,000 per month. Beginning on December 11, 1996, Alcozer began working 16 hours per week as a warehouse worker in a Community Work Experience Program (CWEP) assignment at the North Country Food Bank. [1] The Food Bank is a nonprofit community service organization. A CWEP assignment is a workfare assignment in which public assistance recipients are required to work for public agencies in return for their public assistance payments. See 42 U.S.C. § 682(f) (repealed 1996), [2] Minn.Stat. § 256J.67 (2000). [3] In his workfare assignment, the Food Bank controlled Alcozer's work environment, including all safety aspects. More specifically, on Alcozer's arrival at the work site, a Food Bank foreman would sign him in and tell him what to do. Alcozer then worked alongside other Food Bank employees, unloading trucks, operating a forklift, sweeping the floor, and boxing packages of food for distribution. On February 10, 1997, while lifting a pallet, Alcozer sustained a work-related left arm injury. Although initially diagnosed as a contusion, the injury led to ulnar nerve transposition surgery in December 1997, and Alcozer still has numbness in his fingers. His medical bills were paid through the state's medical assistance program. Alcozer sought workers' compensation benefits for his injury, including temporary total disability benefits and rehabilitation services. He named the Food Bank and Polk County as his employers. Polk County and the Food Bank denied liability, asserting among other things that workfare workers like Alcozer were not employees within the meaning of the workers' compensation law. The Department of Human Services intervened, seeking reimbursement for medical and subsistence payments made on behalf of and to Alcozer. Following an evidentiary hearing, a compensation judge denied Alcozer's claim, concluding that Alcozer was not an employee because he was not a voluntary uncompensated worker and because there was no contract for hire. The Workers Compensation Court of Appeals affirmed.