As used in this chapter:
(A)
(1) "Employee" means:
(a) Every person in the service of the state, or of any county, municipal corporation, township, or school district therein, including regular members of lawfully constituted police and fire departments of municipal corporations and townships, whether paid or volunteer, and wherever serving within the state or on temporary assignment outside thereof, and executive officers of boards of education, under any appointment or contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, including any elected official of the state, or of any county, municipal corporation, or township, or members of boards of education.
As used in division (A)(1)(a) of this section, the term "employee" includes the following persons when responding to an inherently dangerous situation that calls for an immediate response on the part of the person, regardless of whether the person is within the limits of the jurisdiction of the person's regular employment or voluntary service when responding, on the condition that the person responds to the situation as the person otherwise would if the person were on duty in the person's jurisdiction:
(i) Off-duty peace officers. As used in division (A)(1)(a)(i) of this section, "peace officer" has the same meaning as in section 2935.01 of the Revised Code.
(ii) Off-duty firefighters, whether paid or volunteer, of a lawfully constituted fire department.
(iii) Off-duty first responders, emergency medical technicians-basic, emergency medical technicians-intermediate, or emergency medical technicians-paramedic, whether paid or volunteer, of an ambulance service organization or emergency medical service organization pursuant to Chapter 4765. of the Revised Code.
(b) Every person in the service of any person, firm, or private corporation, including any public service corporation, that (i) employs one or more persons regularly in the same business or in or about the same establishment under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, including aliens and minors, household workers who earn one hundred sixty dollars or more in cash in any calendar quarter from a single household and casual workers who earn one hundred sixty dollars or more in cash in any calendar quarter from a single employer, or (ii) is bound by any such contract of hire or by any other written contract, to pay into the state insurance fund the premiums provided by this chapter.
(c) Every person who performs labor or provides services pursuant to a construction contract, as defined in section 4123.79 of the Revised Code, if at least ten of the following criteria apply:
(i) The person is required to comply with instructions from the other contracting party regarding the manner or method of performing services;
(ii) The person is required by the other contracting party to have particular training;
(iii) The person's services are integrated into the regular functioning of the other contracting party;
(iv) The person is required to perform the work personally;
(v) The person is hired, supervised, or paid by the other contracting party;
(vi) A continuing relationship exists between the person and the other contracting party that contemplates continuing or recurring work even if the work is not full time;
(vii) The person's hours of work are established by the other contracting party;
(viii) The person is required to devote full time to the business of the other contracting party;
(ix) The person is required to perform the work on the premises of the other contracting party;
(x) The person is required to follow the order of work set by the other contracting party;
(xi) The person is required to make oral or written reports of progress to the other contracting party;
(xii) The person is paid for services on a regular basis such as hourly, weekly, or monthly;
(xiii) The person's expenses are paid for by the other contracting party;
(xiv) The person's tools and materials are furnished by the other contracting party;
(xv) The person is provided with the facilities used to perform services;
(xvi) The person does not realize a profit or suffer a loss as a result of the services provided;
(xvii) The person is not performing services for a number of employers at the same time;
(xviii) The person does not make the same services available to the general public;
(xix) The other contracting party has a right to discharge the person;
(xx) The person has the right to end the relationship with the other contracting party without incurring liability pursuant to an employment contract or agreement.
Every person in the service of any independent contractor or subcontractor who has failed to pay into the state insurance fund the amount of premium determined and fixed by the administrator of workers' compensation for the person's employment or occupation or if a self-insuring employer has failed to pay compensation and benefits directly to the employer's injured and to the dependents of the employer's killed employees as required by section 4123.35 of the Revised Code, shall be considered as the employee of the person who has entered into a contract, whether written or verbal, with such independent contractor unless such employees or their legal representatives or beneficiaries elect, after injury or death, to regard such independent contractor as the employer.
(2) "Employee" does not mean any of the following:
(a) A duly ordained, commissioned, or licensed minister or assistant or associate minister of a church in the exercise of ministry;
(b) Any officer of a family farm corporation;
(c) An individual incorporated as a corporation;
(d) An officer of a nonprofit corporation, as defined in section 1702.01 of the Revised Code, who volunteers the person's services as a officer;
(e) An individual who otherwise is an employee of an employer but who signs the waiver and affidavit specified in section 4123.15 of the Revised Code on the condition that the administrator has granted a waiver and exception to the individual's employer under section 4123.15 of the Revised Code.
Any employer may elect to include as an "employee" within this chapter, any person excluded from the definition of "employee" pursuant to division (A)(2)(a), (b), (c), or (e) of this section in accordance with rules adopted by the administrator, with the advice and consent of the bureau of workers' compensation board of directors. If an employer is a partnership, sole proprietorship, individual incorporated as a corporation, or family farm corporation, such employer may elect to include as an "employee" within this chapter, any member of such partnership, the owner of the sole proprietorship, the individual incorporated as a corporation, or the officers of the family farm corporation. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a partner, sole proprietor, or any person excluded from the definition of "employee" pursuant to division (A)(2)(a), (b), (c), or (e) of this section from electing to be included as an "employee" under this chapter in accordance with rules adopted by the administrator, with the advice and consent of the board.
In the event of an election, the employer or person electing coverage shall serve upon the bureau of workers' compensation written notice naming the person to be covered and include the person's remuneration for premium purposes in all future payroll reports . No partner, sole proprietor, or person excluded from the definition of "employee" pursuant to division (A)(2)(a), (b), (c), or (e) of this section, shall receive benefits or compensation under this chapter until the bureau receives written notice of the election permitted by this section.
For informational purposes only, the bureau shall prescribe such language as it considers appropriate, on such of its forms as it considers appropriate, to advise employers of their right to elect to include as an "employee" within this chapter a sole proprietor, any member of a partnership, or a person excluded from the definition of "employee" under division (A)(2)(a), (b), (c), or (e) of this section, that they should check any health and disability insurance policy, or other form of health and disability plan or contract, presently covering them, or the purchase of which they may be considering, to determine whether such policy, plan, or contract excludes benefits for illness or injury that they might have elected to have covered by workers' compensation.
(B) "Employer" means:
(1) The state, including state hospitals, each county, municipal corporation, township, school district, and hospital owned by a political subdivision or subdivisions other than the state;
(2) Every person, firm, professional employer organization, and private corporation, including any public service corporation, that (a) has in service one or more employees or shared employees regularly in the same business or in or about the same establishment under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, or (b) is bound by any such contract of hire or by any other written contract, to pay into the insurance fund the premiums provided by this chapter.
All such employers are subject to this chapter. Any member of a firm or association, who regularly performs manual labor in or about a mine, factory, or other establishment, including a household establishment, shall be considered an employee in determining whether such person, firm, or private corporation, or public service corporation, has in its service, one or more employees and the employer shall report the income derived from such labor to the bureau as part of the payroll of such employer, and such member shall thereupon be entitled to all the benefits of an employee.
(C) "Injury" includes any injury, whether caused by external accidental means or accidental in character and result, received in the course of, and arising out of, the injured employee's employment. "Injury" does not include:
(1) Psychiatric conditions except where the claimant's psychiatric conditions have arisen from an injury or occupational disease sustained by that claimant or where the claimant's psychiatric conditions have arisen from sexual conduct in which the claimant was forced by threat of physical harm to engage or participate;
(2) Injury or disability caused primarily by the natural deterioration of tissue, an organ, or part of the body;
(3) Injury or disability incurred in voluntary participation in an employer-sponsored recreation or fitness activity if the employee signs a waiver of the employee's right to compensation or benefits under this chapter prior to engaging in the recreation or fitness activity;
(4) A condition that pre-existed an injury unless that pre-existing condition is substantially aggravated by the injury. Such a substantial aggravation must be documented by objective diagnostic findings, objective clinical findings, or objective test results. Subjective complaints may be evidence of such a substantial aggravation. However, subjective complaints without objective diagnostic findings, objective clinical findings, or objective test results are insufficient to substantiate a substantial aggravation.
(D) "Child" includes a posthumous child and a child legally adopted prior to the injury.
(E) "Family farm corporation" means a corporation founded for the purpose of farming agricultural land in which the majority of the voting stock is held by and the majority of the stockholders are persons or the spouse of persons related to each other within the fourth degree of kinship, according to the rules of the civil law, and at least one of the related persons is residing on or actively operating the farm, and none of whose stockholders are a corporation. A family farm corporation does not cease to qualify under this division where, by reason of any devise, bequest, or the operation of the laws of descent or distribution, the ownership of shares of voting stock is transferred to another person, as long as that person is within the degree of kinship stipulated in this division.
(F) "Occupational disease" means a disease contracted in the course of employment, which by its causes and the characteristics of its manifestation or the condition of the employment results in a hazard which distinguishes the employment in character from employment generally, and the employment creates a risk of contracting the disease in greater degree and in a different manner from the public in general.
(G) "Self-insuring employer" means an employer who is granted the privilege of paying compensation and benefits directly under section 4123.35 of the Revised Code, including a board of county commissioners for the sole purpose of constructing a sports facility as defined in section 307.696 of the Revised Code, provided that the electors of the county in which the sports facility is to be built have approved construction of a sports facility by ballot election no later than November 6, 1997.
(H) "Private employer" means an employer as defined in division (B)(2) of this section.
(I) "Professional employer organization" has the same meaning as in section 4125.01 of the Revised Code.
(J) "Public employer" means an employer as defined in division (B)(1) of this section.
(K) "Sexual conduct" means vaginal intercourse between a male and female; anal intercourse, fellatio, and cunnilingus between persons regardless of gender; and, without privilege to do so, the insertion, however slight, of any part of the body or any instrument, apparatus, or other object into the vaginal or anal cavity of another. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete vaginal or anal intercourse.
(L) "Other-states' insurer" means an insurance company that is authorized to provide workers' compensation insurance coverage in any of the states that permit employers to obtain insurance for workers' compensation claims through insurance companies.
(M) "Other-states' coverage" means both of the following:
(1) Insurance coverage secured by an eligible employer for workers' compensation claims of employees who are in employment relationships localized in a state other than this state or those employees' dependents;
(2) Insurance coverage secured by an eligible employer for workers' compensation claims that arise in a state other than this state where an employer elects to obtain coverage through either the administrator or an other-states' insurer.
(N) "Limited other-states coverage" means insurance coverage provided by the administrator to an eligible employer for workers' compensation claims of employees who are in an employment relationship localized in this state but are temporarily working in a state other than this state, or those employees' dependents.
Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 52, §1, eff. 9/29/2015.
Amended by 130th General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 493, §1, eff. 9/17/2014.
Effective Date: 08-01-2003; 11-05-2004; 2006 SB7 10-11-2006; 2008 SB334 09-11-2008
Section: 4123.01 4123.02 4123.021 4123.022 4123.023 4123.024 4123.025 4123.026 4123.03 4123.031 4123.032 4123.033 4123.034 4123.035 4123.036 NextLast modified: October 10, 2016