Airline Workers with Partial Disabilities

Work Injury Lawyers Serving Chicago

Often airline work looks glamorous to people who don’t have to do it. Unfortunately, airline work can be stressful and full of dangers as employees work very hard to ensure safe and timely passage for customers. Some airline workers develop a disability on the job. If you are an airline worker with a partial disability suffered on the job in Chicago, you may be able to get benefits through the Illinois workers’ compensation system. However, even valid claims do get denied, and it can be helpful to retain experienced Chicago workers’ compensation attorneys to advocate on your behalf.

Airline Workers with Partial Disabilities

Airline workers develop partial disabilities in many different ways. Sometimes baggage handlers are injured on the job while lifting and carrying heavy bags or moving equipment. Flight attendants may suffer partial disability if they lift and move luggage or push food carts. Sometimes flight attendants are hit by falling objects in overhead bins. Airline maintenance workers may be injured if they are repairing an airplane and there is a malfunctioning of parts. Sometimes pilots are injured on the job during turbulence.

If you cannot earn what you earned before you developed a partial disability, you may be able to obtain partial disability benefits under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act.

Airline Workers with Temporary Partial Disabilities

Temporary partial disability (TPD) benefits can be accessed by airline workers whose disabilities leave them able to work on a restricted basis. These benefits are available while you are healing from your workplace injuries. In order to get temporary partial disability benefits, you’d need to be working light duty, part-time, or full-time. You must be earning less than what you earned when you were working full-time. You can be paid temporary partial disability benefits until you return to your old work conditions or until you get to maximum medical improvement.

The calculation for temporary partial disability benefits is 2/3 of the difference between an employee’s average wage while performing job duties in the job in which they were employed when the work accident happened and the total amount earned in the job they can do with restrictions. The employer can give a worker a job that satisfies the doctor’s mandate, or the worker can seek a suitable job somewhere else.

Permanent Partial Disability Based on Impairment or Disfigurement

Sometimes temporary partial disability progresses and results in permanent partial disability, and a skilled work injury lawyer can help you seek benefits under these circumstances. You might experience impairment or disfigurement, but still be able to do some sort of work, even though that disability persists. When job related accidents result in permanent physical losses, it is possible to obtain permanent partial disability benefits through the workers’ compensation system.

There are four kinds of permanent partial disability benefits that can be awarded to injured workers. Permanent partial disability determinations are only made after an employee gets to maximum medical improvement. When an employee earns a different amount in a new position, it may be possible to get a wage differential as a permanent partial disability benefit. However, if you’ve lost use of a body part, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act may specify what you can get. You can recover the amount equal to the lost use of the body part based on the Act’s schedule. When your injury isn’t listed in the schedule, but you are permanently disabled, you can recover an amount that is equal to your reduced capacity. You can also get compensation if you suffer a permanent serious disfigurement to your hand, arm, neck, chest, head, face or a different body area.

Consult an Experienced Attorney for Chicago Workers’ Compensation Claims

If you are an airline worker with a partial disability sustained from an on-the-job injury in Chicago, you may face some resistance regarding workers’ compensation benefits. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, our lawyers represent partially disabled airline workers with workers’ compensation claims in communities including Quincy, Champaign, Aurora, Rockford, and Springfield, as well as Winnebago, Adams, Cook, Sangamon, Kane, and Champaign Counties. We will also examine the facts to determine whether other relief, such as damages in a personal injury lawsuit or SSDI may be available. Call us at 312-724-5846, or contact us online.