Quick Facts About Contractors Workers Comp of Non-Military Personnel Injured Overseas

​To support a country after a war or a natural disaster, government contractors are hired. Contractors and subcontractors help rebuild a country by providing logistical support, infrastructure, and security where materials and manpower is highly needed. 

In the U.S., government-accredited contractors and subcontractors are bound by laws before they can start to operate. Here is what you need to keep in mind or remember if you are working or planning to be part of such an industry.

Federal Laws

1. Defense Base Act and Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act
   Since federal law requires all U.S. government contractors and subcontractors to secure workers' compensation insurance for their employees working overseas. The Defense Base Act is a law passed to strengthen the law. 
   
   The Defense Base Act covers all employees working for private employers on military bases and lands used for the military purpose by the US. This law would also cover overseas bases of the US like the bases in Okinawa, Japan, and Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. This will also cover the following:
   
   - Employees working in public works contracts with a US agency.
   -Those working under construction and service contracts related to national           defense or related to war outside the country.
   - Contracts funded by the Foreign Assistance Act or employees with American employers whose line of work is connected to welfare or benefit of the armed forces abroad.
   
   Under the Defense Base Act, a worker’s compensation insurance for the employees must be secured, prepared and submitted by their respective contractors and subcontractors before any work can commence. The law impliedly requires contractors and subcontractors to purchase a separate overseas’ workers compensation to be compliant with the law, since the Defense Base Act expresses contractors and subcontractors must keep workers’ compensation insurance in place.
   
   Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 901-50, allows the employer to have an option to either secure a worker’s compensation insurance policy or self-insure its employees.
   
   
2. Benefits
   Employers are liable for payment for death and any injury of the worker, regardless of whether it was working hours. Maximum monetary benefits can reach $1030 per week while it can also be ⅔ of the average weekly income. Death benefits half of the weekly average income going to the wife, or a child or ⅔ if the deceased has more than one survivor. Death and total disability benefits can be payable for life.
   
   
3. Legal Assistance
   Compensation claims are difficult, especially if it is covered by federal law and programs. There are also contractors who apply for a waiver of the needed requirement. Having a good employment lawyer can even the odds. 

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