Request By:
Arthur Baker, Executive Director
Housing Authority of Carrollton
P.O. Box 305
Carrollton, Kentucky 41008
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; By: Martin Glazer, Assistant Attorney General
Your predecessor, Ray Clem, requested an opinion as to whether persons employed by your agency on a voluntary work release program are subject to workers' compensation.
As background, Mr. Clem advised us that the Carroll County Attorney had inquired whether the Housing Authority might be interested in working people who had committed minor crimes. The program would provide assistance to public agencies at no cost and assist those guilty of minor crimes to repay their debt to society.
One of the participants was injured while so employed. The Workers' Compensation Insurance carrier for your agency has refused to consider such persons as covered under its policy. You contend that the sponsors of the program should be responsible.
Ordinarily, under the Workers' Compensation Law, KRS 342.640, the person so employed would be your employee. That statute provides, in part:
(1) Every person, including a minor, whether lawfully or unlawfully employed, in the service of an employer under any contract of hire or apprenticeship, express or implied, and all helpers and assistants of employes whether paid by the employer or employe, if employed with the knowledge, actual or constructive, of the employer.
(3) Every person in the service of the state or any political subdivision or agency thereof, or of any county, city of any class, school district, drainage district, tax district, public or quasi-public corporation or other political entity, under any contract of hire, express or implied, and every official or officer thereof, whether elected or appointed, while performing his official duties. Every person who is a member of a volunteer fire or police department shall be deemed for the purposes of this chapter, to be in the employment of the political subdivision of the state where the department is organized. Every person who is a regularly enrolled volunteer member or trainee of the civil defense corps of this state as established under KRS Chapter 39, shall be deemed for the purposes of this chapter, to be in the employment of this state. Every person who is a member of the Kentucky national guard, while said person is on active state service as defined in KRS 38.010(4) shall be deemed for the purposes of this chapter to be in the employment of this state.
(4) Every person performing service in the course of the trade, business, profession or occupation of an employer at the time of the injury.
However, in
Tackett v. LaGrange Penitentiary, Ky., 524 S.W.2d 468 (1975), the Court held that state prison inmates injured while working in prison industries were not subject to the Workers' Compensation Act and were not state employees.
KRS 441.068 authorizes misdemeanants to be employed in community service projects under certain conditions. We assume that the person here injured was employed under that statute. Subsection (6) of 441.068 provides:
Participation in community services related projects shall not be deemed employment for any purpose.
Therefore, based on that statute, the injured prisoner is not subject to the Workers' Compensation Law. He is a county prisoner who is temporarily released to perform community service.
KRS 441.010 provides that for indigent prisoners needing medical treatment (not federal prisoners in county jails), payment for medical attention is the responsibility of the unit of government whose law has been violated.
In your case, the county jailer should refer payments and fill out proper forms to the Division of County and Municipal Accounting, County Fees Section, Finance and Administration Cabinet, Capitol Annex, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.