County Trash Collector’s Workers’ Compensation Claim Thrown Out 2025

When the garbage truck stopped, the worker stepped down from the metal step on the back of the truck to run and retrieve a trash can. When his feet hit the ground, he heard a pop in his leg, felt pain in his knee, knelt for a moment in pain, then stood up and continued work.

Within a few months, the Fairfax County trash collector needed a hip replacement. Yet when he sought workers’ compensation benefits for his injury, he was found not eligible. A Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission (VWCC) deputy commissioner found that he had not proved that he sustained an injury by accident that arose out of and in the course of his employment.

The trash collector had argued that he was injured when he jumped or stepped off the back of the trash truck from a metal step 17 inches off the ground, with no handle or railing on which to hold onto while descending. He maintained that based on these facts, his injury arose out of his employment and should be deemed compensable.

Not Unusual

But the deputy commissioner did not agree, finding that his stepping off the truck was not an unusual or strenuous activity, nor was it a risky condition of the workplace.

The VWCC recently affirmed the deputy’s denial. “The mere happening of an accident at the workplace, not caused by any work related risk or significant work related exertion, is not compensable,” the commission explained, quoting from a 1989 court ruling.

The VWCC also cited a 2012 Court of Appeals ruling in a similar case involving a trash collector where the court noted that there is no “rule of automatic compensation” for an injury involving a stair of unusual height. In that case, the court relied on the worker’s testimony that using the steps did not require an abnormal exertion and that stepping down was not strenuous or difficult. The truck was not moving when he stepped down, and the surface on which he landed was completely level. Moreover, there was no medical evidence proving that stepping down from that height caused the injury.

Injured While ‘Simply Walking’ Not Covered by Workers’ Compensation

Similarly, in this latest case involving Fairfax County, the VWCC recognized that the job of the trash collector required him to step down or jump from the back step of the truck, about 17 inches from the ground. However, the commission said the evidence was not sufficient for it to find that any work-related risk or significant work-related exercise caused his injury as required by the workers’ compensation act.

“The claimant did not describe stepping down or jumping in an awkward or unusual fashion. There was no environmental condition that contributed to his injury such as uneven pavement, an awkward or confined setting, or a distraction,” the VWCC found.

Thus, the injury is not considered to have arisen out of work and is not covered by workers’ compensation.

The employee has the right to appeal this decision to the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Simply Walking

The ruling comes just weeks after the VWCC denied workers’ compensation benefits to a Fairfax County school bus driver for an injury that happened while he was simply walking from his bus to a restroom. There, too, the VWCC stressed that not all accidents are compensable merely because they happen at work.

“Simple acts of walking, bending, reaching, or turning, without any work-related exertion or awkward contributing factors, are not considered to be risks of one’s employment,” the commission noted in upholding a deputy commissioner’s denial of benefits sought by the bus driver.

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Workers’ Compensation
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