Coworker Gives Employee a Bottle of Mountain Dew; Employee, While Intoxicated, Drinks the Contents which is Toxic; Workers’ Compensation Claim?

As reported in Lynch Ryan’s blog, the Vermont Supreme Court in Cyr v. McDermott’s, Inc., 2010 VT 19 (2010) held that the Workers’ Comp claim might be compensable, remanding for a determination on whether it occurred in the course of employment.

If drinking, at home, a bottle of what an employee thought to be Mountain Dew given to the employee by a non-supervisory co-worker, gives rise to a legitimate Workers’ Compensation claim, I have to wonder whether a layoff (or even “persistent perceived job insecurity”) which adversely affects the employee’s health and life expectancy, gives rise to a Workers’ Compensation claim. A recent New York Times article discusses the physical and emotional impact on employees of job insecurity.