Are volunteers covered by workers comp?

Answer 1

Short answer is no - you must be an employee to be covered meaning you receive something of value for your services.

Above answer is partly correct. This is greatly dependent upon the applicable state workers compensation law. Some volunteers are covered as a matter of law. Some volunteers are specifically excluded as a matter of law. In many cases, the volunteer will be an employee only if the employer provides something of extrinsic value for the services; usually, this must take the form of a wage or stipend of some type, even if the wage is less than what a regular employee would be paid.

Some agents and brokers believe that a Voluntary Workers Compensation endorsement will cover a volunteer; this is incorrect. A VWC endorsement is intended to provide like, kind and quality benefits to an employee who is otherwise ineligible for WC, such as work-release inmates, domestic servants, etc. Since volunteers are not employees, they do not come within the ambit of this endorsement, despite the similarity between the words "voluntary" and "volunteer."

Answer 2

Possibly. This is not a 'yes' or 'no' answer. You will have to ask some specific questions on your own, relevant to your particular situation. Much depends on the circumstance and responsibilities of the "volunteer" work. (i.e.- in some jurisdiction, volunteer fire fighters and rescue squad personnel are covered under workman's comp WHEN THEY ARE ON CALL and actually performing their volunteer duties. But this is not applicable to all volunteer work OR in all jurisdictions). ADDED: I returned to this question after realizing that I might have misunderstood the question due to insufficient information given by the questioner. If the questioner is asking if he may collect workman's compensation from his regular full-time employer because of injuries suffered while he was off-work but doing volunteer work.... the answer would be a definite - no. Refer to the first answer: If his volunteer duties did not offer workman's comp protection he can't collect compensation from his regular employer.