Workers at The Hershey Company fulfil all kinds of roles, such as actually working with chocolate, making sure the machinery is all up and running, and transporting and selling the chocolate. These various jobs all have different potential for on-the-job injuries, and our lawyers can help you file your claim if that happens.
You start your claim by filing notice of your injury directly with your employer. They then contact their insurance carrier and decide whether to pay your claim or not. If they deny you, your case begins in full. Our lawyers can file your Claim Petition with the state to get the case before a Workers’ Comp Judge, help you gather evidence to support the claim, and progress the case through the Workers’ Comp process.
Call our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at Cardamone Law today for help with your case: (267) 651-7945.
How Do I Start My Claim?
You must file your initial notice of injury within 21 days of the injury to start your claim.
What Do I Need?
You need to seek medical care before filing. Doing so means you will have medical records and a diagnosis you can provide your employer, so they know the basics of your injury.
In many cases, you won’t have much more information than this, and filing your initial claim can be difficult. Always work with a Pennsylvania Workers’ comp lawyer for help, even this early on in the case.
Deadlines
You are supposed to report injuries to your employer within 21 days of the accident. However, you can technically still file as long as you do so within 120 days. If you miss this deadline, your case is over.
Certain injuries might give you more time to discover the disability and file, but always check with a lawyer as soon as you know you are injured for help understanding whether this meets the deadlines or not.
When Do I Hear Back?
Your employer should report the injury to their insurance carrier and make a decision on whether or not to cover you within 21 days from your initial injury report. Once you are denied, you can take the claim to the next steps.
If they do not get back to you in that timeframe, you can treat it as a denial. However, they can also grant temporary benefits and buy themselves some additional time to make a final decision (usually up to 90 days).
Filing a Claim Petition with the State
After your initial claim is denied, you can go to the Department of Labor and Industry to file a workers’ Comp claim with the state. This is done by filing a Claim Petition with the Workers’ Comp Office of Adjudication.
You should have a lawyer on your side by this point and work with them to file. These Claim Petitions require much more detailed information, supporting documentation, etc. From there, the case goes to a Workers’ Comp Judge (WCJ), who will accept evidence and hear the case in full to make a decision.
When Should My Case End?
If your initial claim is accepted, you should know within 21 days in most cases. This is a quick timeline, but it is not necessarily common to win your case this quickly; employers or their insurance carriers often deny claims and hope you will give up.
After filing a Claim Petition, it can take months of negotiation before the employer or their insurance carrier decides to grant benefits. If we have to take the case all the way to a hearing with the WCJ, it often takes over a year.
Filing a Lawsuit for Work Injuries at Hershey
You cannot sue an employer directly for work-related injuries, meaning you cannot sue Hershey for accidents you suffer at work. However, you can sue outside parties, like
- Delivery companies
- Suppliers or vendors
- Equipment manufacturers
- Drivers
- Customers
These claims are filed in court instead of going through the Workers’ Comp system. They can potentially go before a judge and jury in open court if they are not settled, and they can pay damages above and beyond what Workers’ Comp covers. Always consider the possibility of a lawsuit alongside your Workers’ Comp claim.
FAQs for Injured Hershey Workers in Pennsylvania
Are Hershey, Hersheypark, and Hotel Hershey the Same Company?
No; workers at Hersheypark would file injury claims with their employer: Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company. That is also the parent company of Hotel Hershey.
While the hotel and resort were originally designed for Hershey plant workers, they are different companies.
What Hershey Workers Are Eligible for Workers’ Comp?
Workers’ Comp should cover any employee who is injured while performing work tasks or because of work conditions. This means all “employees” and most workers should be covered. The only workers that might not be covered are “independent contractors,” though being paid through a 1099 is not enough to prove that classification is correct.
Coverage starts on the first day of work, so there is no need to pay premiums or vest into the benefits first.
What Benefits Does Workers’ Comp Cover?
Workers’ Comp typically pays medical care costs, 2/3 of your lost wages, and additional “specific loss” benefits for amputations and other certain permanent injuries. The wage-loss and specific loss benefits have caps and floors, but medical care does not.
Workers’ Comp does not pay for pain and suffering, the remaining lost wages, or outside economic damages (e.g., childcare costs, property damage), but you can potentially claim those damages through a lawsuit.
Can I Sue Hershey for Work Injuries?
If you work as a Hershey employee, you typically cannot sue your employer for work-related injuries. However, outside contractors or other people who are injured while working for another employer could potentially sue Hershey if it caused their injuries.
If you are a Hershey employee, you would have to look for outside third parties to sue, like drivers or equipment manufacturers.
Call Our Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Pennsylvania Today
For your free case review, call Cardamone Law’s Philadelphia Workers’ Comp lawyers at (267) 651-7945.
