If you live in Florida and do not have the documentation to do so, job options are limited. Illegal work requiring long hours for poor pay may be your only option.
One day you get injured at work. Your employer tells you to leave and keep quiet. Otherwise, they will report you to the authorities for being here illegally. Whether they will carry out this threat or not is hard to say. Remember, they do not want the authorities to know that they employ undocumented workers. It may be a ploy to avoid paying you out.
Florida law clarifies that if you are injured at work, you have the right to claim workers’ compensation through your employer. However, a 2003 law made it a felony to make a workers’ compensation claim using false identification. If you are undocumented, you may have used a fake social security number to get work that will violate this law if you claim. NPR reports that some insurance companies use this to avoid paying out claims to injured workers. They even discovered that some insurance companies worked with authorities to have undocumented claimants arrested when attending their claim hearing, thus avoiding paying out the claim.
If you have suffered a workplace injury on the Treasure Coast, seek legal help to understand your options. If you do not have the correct documentation to reside and work in the state, things are much more complicated than if you do. However, if you are injured and unable to work, you are likely to need the compensation that Florida law entitles you to get.