Workers Compensation Approved for Illegal Immigrants

Pat Jennings

Contributor

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The Supreme Court of South Carolina recently handed down a ruling that the citizenship of injured workers should not influence their ability to recover for an on the job injury. The court found that illegal immigrants are entitled to the same benefits under the South Carolina Workers Compensation Code as every other worker in state. This decision came on the heels of a case involving an undocumented Mexican employee who was injured while working on a demolition job. He suffered a detached retina and the employer; Environmental Management Services did not feel as though it owed any benefits to its alien workers because of federal laws, which prohibit hiring these illegal immigrants. Although the company was gaining the benefits of these employees, it did not want to be liable for injuries suffered while they were gainfully employed.

In it's decision, the Supreme Court found that holding out these benefits to undocumented workers would essentially mean that they would not have to have insure their employees. "Disallowing benefits would mean unscrupulous employers could hire undocumented workers without the burden of insuring them, a consequence that would encourage rather than discourage the hiring of illegal workers," Justice James Moore wrote in the unanimous opinion. Other southern states including North Carolina have had similar decisions handed down on this subject, something that was noted in the unanimous opinion. Recent estimates find the number of illegal immigrants in South Carolina may range from 75,000 to 400,000.

Senator Glenn McConnell says that he does not agree with the high court's ruling. He feels that these illegal workers have "unclean hands" because they may not be upfront with their employers and that the taxpayers should not be footing the bill for their medical expenses. "We cannot afford for people who know they're illegal to come inhere and get the benefit that's going to be shared by the general public in terms of rates. That's just wrong - that's unfair," says McConnell.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Workers Compensation.