The premise on which the Workers' Compensation system is based: workers gave up the right to sue the employer in exchange for medical care for payment for their injuries.
The legal doctrine which says that an employee's exclusive remedy or relief for a work-related injury or illness are those benefits due him/her under the state's workers' compensation statute and which are either self-funded by the employer or secured through an insurance policy. If not for the “exclusive remedy” provision, then employees injured as a result of an employer's negligence, for example, might be able to also successfully sue that employer for damages in a tort claim.
The right to the recovery of benefits as provided in the Workers' Compensation Act shall be the employee's exclusive remedy against the employer for a personal work related injury or occupational disease. The only exception to this is an intentional tort.
The legislature has established the Workersâ€(tm) Compensation Law as the exclusive remedy of an employee and his /her dependents in a death case, against the employer who has secured workersâ€(tm) compensation. It is the sole recourse that the injured employee, dependents or representatives have against the employer for injuries or death resulting from a work-connected accident or occupational disease. If an employer who is required to secure workersâ€(tm) compensation insurance fails to do so, the employee, if disabled due to a work-connected injury, has the right to elect to either claim workersâ€(tm) compensation or to maintain an action against the uninsured employer for damages. (WC Law § 11)
Part of the social contract that forms the basis for workers compensation statutes under which employers are responsible for work-related injury and disease, regardless of whether is was the employee's fault and in return the injured employee gives up the right to sue when the employer's negligence causes the harm.
in WORKERS COMPENSATION it is intended that the statutory workers comp benefits will be the sole source of recovery for injured workers in keeping with the intent of workers comp laws to substitute statutory benefits for lawsuits by injured workers against their employers; therefore, the statutes provide employers with immunity as long as the employer complies with workers comp requirements. (See F.S. 440.10 and EMPLOYERS LIABILITY INSURANCE)
