I was injured on the job and I am 6 months pregnant. I pulled a muscle in my stomach because a heavy cart fell on me and I had to push it off of me resulting in the injury. My doctor put me on bed rest and said that it was a pregnancy complication. My work now wants to only pay me STD because if i were not pregnant I would probably only have restricted duties as opposed to complete bed rest. I live in Illinois

I was injured on the job and I am 6 months pregnant. I pulled a muscle in my stomach because a heavy cart fell on me and I had to push it off of me resulting in the injury. My doctor put me on bed rest and said that it was a pregnancy complication. My work now wants to only pay me STD because if i were not pregnant I would probably only have restricted duties as opposed to complete bed rest. I live in Illinois
I may be wrong and a senior member will let me know,but what would have happened if you were not pregnant at the time of the accident,i feel,is irrelevant,you were pregnant,they worked you knowing this,and as a result of you getting injured on the job,while you were pregnant,you are on total bed rest,not just because you are pregnant. I feel that you are entitled to workers comp. also. Please be patient,another senior member will be along here to let you know the laws pertaining to this,and tell you if your job even has the choice to make, reguarding only paying you STD.

I just did a LOT of research on this a few months ago as I had an employee who was pregnant, suffered an injury and was placed on bed rest. The long and short is, there is very little case law on this anywhere and WC law does not specifically address it. This is one of those things that is fairly rare and can usually be worked out between the two parties without litigation or even a hearing.

Have you filed a claim for the accident with WC? Is the reason you are off directly related to the accident or because of some other pregnancy related reason? Did the injury cause any problems that you expect to resurface or last beyond the period of time you are out for the pregnancy? Is there some reason you wish to run this under WC as opposed to STD?

The following is purely my opinion, but if STD isn't being challenged, and if the injury isn't something you expect to need future treatment for, I'd make my life simple and keep it as STD only. If you file it under WC, you are only going to receive a percentage of your salary for the time you are out (though likeky STD pays a similar % as well) and it is entirely possible that the carrier will challenge whether this is work related or not. Translation- you may have a delay before you get the money, if it is deemed compensable. And that if is a big one as there isn't a lot of precendent to fall back on, nor is it directly addressed in the regs. Even if you have other injuries that require treatment under WC, you can still follow through the claim for those alone.


For the record, we did pay our employee WC, but that was at our own discretion, not because we were ordered to.