Mary was injured when she was pushed against a wall by a student. The incident occurred while she was interning in an Orange County School Board (OCSB) elementary classroom. The internship was unpaid but was a requirement of her coursework at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Mary filed for workers compensation benefits with both the UCF and OCSB and both denied her on the basis that she was not an employee. The Judge of Compensation agreed with Mary that she was an employee of OCSB because of the benefits they derived from her internship but OCSB appealed the decision.

Click here to see if Mary received any benefits and from whom.

This is a very difficult question to answer. The workers compensation policy does not define the term employee. Instead it refers directly to the workers compensation law. This means that each state defines employee within its law so an employee in one state may not be an employee in another.

Click here to review the PF&M analysis of the Workers Compensation and Employers Liability Insurance Policy.

The term employee is defined only to expand its common definition to include leased employees but not temporary employees. If an intern is not an employee, two important exclusions would not apply to injuries to that intern. In addition, that intern would have no liability coverage available for actions committed while performing services for the benefit of the interning firm.

Click here to review the CGL exclusions that would not apply to an intern if that intern is not an employee.

Interning is common practice that is getting increased scrutiny as a wage and hour issue. Many benefits are derived by both the intern and the interning firm, but when an accident happens or when employment lawyers get involved, there can be serious consequences.

Click here for a recent Rough Notes article that discusses the intern problem along with other emerging wage and hour risks.