What do ‘Employee,’ ‘Employer’ Mean in Delaware?

Glossary Check

Quick quiz: Define "employee" for purposes of Delaware workers' compensation law. Once you've got it, do the same for "employer." While you might have a basic understanding of what those words mean, Simply Research subscribers have the precise definitions at their fingertips.

We highlight some of the vocabulary here.

Employee

“Employee” means every person in service of any corporation (private, public, municipal or quasi-public), association, firm or person, excepting those employees excluded by this subchapter, under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, or performing services for a valuable consideration, excluding spouse and minor children of a farm employer unless the spouse or minor child is a bona fide employee of a farm employer and is named in an endorsement to the farm employer’s contract of insurance, and excluding any person whose employment is casual and not in the regular course of the trade, business, profession or occupation of the employee's employer, and not including persons to whom articles or materials are furnished or repaired, or adopted for sale in the worker’s own home, or on the premises not under the control or management of the employer. 

Casual Employment

“Casual employment,” means employment for not over two weeks or a total salary during the employment not to exceed $100 and repairs and maintenance of employer’s regular business shall not be construed as casual employment; except, however, that everyone assigned to work is specifically designated an employee.

Inmates

Inmates in the custody of the Department of Correction or inmates on work release who participate in the Prison Industries Program or other programs sponsored for inmates by the Department of Correction or other applicable Delaware law shall not be considered employees of the State for purposes of this title or otherwise be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits unless said inmate is employed by an employer other than the State or a political subdivision thereof.

Workers' Comp 101: In Delaware, "personal injury sustained by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment”:

(1) Shall not cover an employee except while the employee is engaged in, on or about the premises where the employee’s services are being performed, which are occupied by, or under the control of, the employer (the employee’s presence being required by the nature of the employee’s employment), or while the employee is engaged elsewhere in or about the employer’s business where the employee’s services require the employee’s presence as a part of such service at the time of the injury, provided, however, that participation in an approved Travelink Traffic Mitigation Act program, shall not be construed as meeting either exception; and

(2) Shall not include any injury caused by the willful act of another employee directed against the employee by reasons personal to such employee and not directed against the employee as an employee or because of the employee’s employment.

(3) Shall, however, cover any personal injury to an off-duty employee of the State who demonstrates by a preponderance of the evidence that the injury was the result of an intentional act by a person associated with the employee in that employee’s official capacity who committed the act because of that association. It is an affirmative defense in the case of an off-duty injury that the injured employee initiated the incident that resulted in the injury.

Sports Officials

Any person providing services as a sports official at a sports event in which the players are not compensated shall not be considered employees under this title. "For purposes of this title “Sports officials” includes an umpire, referee, judge, scorekeeper, timekeeper, organizer, or other person who is a neutral participant in a sports event. This exclusion does not apply to workers’ compensation claims against schools, associations of schools or other organizations sponsoring a sports contest where the claimant is a sports official who is a regular employee of such school, association of schools, or other organization sponsoring the sports contest.

Employer

"Employer" includes all those who employ others unless they are excluded from the application of this chapter by any provision of this subchapter, and if the employer is insured, the term shall include the insurer as far as practicable; employer shall also include the governing body for which employable relief recipients are assigned work.

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