Opinion ID: 2633413
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alaska Workers' Compensation Act provisions establish an employee's remedies for work-related injuries.

Text: The Alaska Workers' Compensation Act [5] creates a system through which employers compensate employees injured on the job, irrespective of fault for the injury. [6] It is a mutual arrangement of reciprocal rights between employer and employee, whereby both parties give up and gain certain advantages. [7] In exchange for guaranteed recovery for post-injury wage loss, [8] medical expenses, [9] and vocational rehabilitation services covered by the statute, [10] employees give up the opportunity to seek the full scope of tort or negligence damages. [11] The Alaska Workers' Compensation Act establishes that [t]he liability of an employer prescribed in AS 23.30.045 is exclusive and in place of all other liability of the employer. [12] The exclusivity of workers' compensation act remedies was a keystone of the development of workers' compensation systems such as Alaska's. [13] Employers and employees both give up certain rights for the greater good of widespread, no-fault insurance coverage for on-the-job injuries. [14] Alaska Statute 23.30.045(a) provides that an employer is liable for and shall secure the payment to employees of the compensation payable under [the Act]. When an employer fails to comply with the Alaska Workers' Compensation Act's requirement to secure payment of compensation to its injured employees, either through procurement of a workers' compensation insurance policy or through self-insurance, the statute offers an injured employee two options for seeking recovery. The Act offers employees whose employers have not provided workers' compensation benefits the choice of (1) claiming compensation through the procedures of the workers' compensation statute, [15] or (2) maintain[ing] an action against the employer at law ... for damages on account of the injury or death. [16] If the injured employee brings a claim before the Alaska Workers' Compensation Board, [17] that employee has available the same benefits that would have been provided if the employer had complied with the statute by having workers' compensation insurance. [18] If, on the other hand, an injured employee chooses to bring a lawsuit against the employer under AS 23.30.055, the workers' compensation statute enhances the opportunity for recovery and removes many of the limitations on compensation ordinarily imposed. First, in an action at law against the non-compliant employer, the statute shifts the presumption of negligence. [I]t is presumed that the injury to the employee was the first result growing out of the negligence of the employer and that the employer's negligence was the proximate cause of the injury; the burden of proof rests upon the employer to rebut this presumption of negligence. [19] Additionally, in a lawsuit under this provision, the employer does not enjoy the limitations on liability otherwise imposed by the workers' compensation statutory scheme. [20] Finally, an employer may not raise defenses of contributory or comparative negligence, negligence of fellow employees, or assumption of risk. [21] Thus, the workers' compensation statute, which carefully balances the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers, [22] tips the scales in favor of an injured employee when the employer does not provide workers' compensation benefits and the employee chooses to sue for damages for the injuries. [23] In this way, the Act allows the employee who has suffered injury resulting from the employer's negligence to recover damages above and beyond the compensation that would have been available had the employer provided workers' compensation insurance. The workers' compensation statute specifies the two remedies for employees whose employers have failed to provide workers' compensation benefits. [24] We have recognized that [i]n substituting certainty of compensation for the hazards of litigation of work-related injuries, it is too clear to require discussion that the [A]ct was intended to comprehend and govern all the interacting relations of employee, fellow employee and employer. [25] Therefore, the remedies offered by the workers' compensation statute supercede any common law remedies outside of the statutory scheme. [26]