Washington Supreme Court Okays Work Comp for Traveling Employee Becoming Ill

The Washington Supreme Court has issued a final say on employees wanting to claim workers’ compensation for infectious diseases picked up while traveling for business. The court responded to a suit filed by an Alaska Airlines flight attendant who picked up COVID-19 while on a flight in 2020.

Workers’ compensation covers injuries or illnesses coming naturally out of employment. The airline argued that travel-related activities like eating in a restaurant, or staying in a hotel or motel, are everyday life kind of activities. So covering infectious diseases is like automatically giving employees coverage with no requirement that they behave responsibly. 

The court disagreed and said the doctrine does not alter the definition of occupational disease but does clarify what it means by period of coverage.

“If a worker contracts a disease that meets the statutory definition while traveling for work, the Act provides coverage,” the court wrote.

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