§ 101.028.Workers' Compensation Insurance

A short provision placing government on the same footing as private employers for workplace injuries.

A governmental unit that has workers' compensation insurance or that accepts the workers' compensation laws of this state is entitled to the privileges and immunities granted by those laws to private individuals and corporations.

The principal privilege is the exclusive remedy bar. A subscribing employer is not subject to a common law negligence suit by an injured employee; the compensation system is the employee's exclusive remedy. This section extends that to governmental units.

The result is that an injured public employee's route is a compensation claim, not a Tort Claims Act suit — and this section is why the Act rarely appears in employee injury cases at all.

The condition is either coverage or acceptance of the laws, which accommodates governmental units that self-insure through an approved arrangement rather than purchasing a policy.

The provision fits the pattern running through this subchapter: where a governmental unit takes on an obligation that private parties bear, it receives the protections private parties receive.

Note that the proportionate responsibility chapter separately excludes actions to collect workers' compensation benefits from its apportionment scheme.