Could taking Fido to work trigger workers’ compensation liability?
The answer is yes. If you allow furry friends to come into the workplace (and certain disability laws require that service dogs be allowed in), and Fido isn’t as friendly as one would hope and bites an employee, this is a workers’ compensation event. That is true whether it is another employee’s or customer’s dog. A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court case, Francyzk v. Home Depot, affirmed this principle and highlighted the need for workplaces to think about how they will react if Fido bites someone. In this case, Home Depot did not obtain the customer’s information after the customer’s dog bit an employee, leaving the employee without recourse against the customer or sufficient information about the dog, vaccinations, etc. Companies need to plan for this potentially unfortunate contingency if canines (or other furry critters) are in the workplace.