Oregon: Driver Injured in Pre-Employment Driving Test Awarded No Benefits

Where a trucker sustained injuries while performing a pre-employment driving test, he could not recover workers’ compensation benefits; he was not an “employee” within the meaning of Or. Rev. Stat. § 656.005(30), held the Supreme Court of Oregon. That the test drive involved the handling of actual freight and resulted in revenue for the prospective employer made no difference, said the Court. Citing Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the Court stressed there had been no contract of hire. The driver unsuccessfully argued that since Oregon law entitled him to the minimum wage for the time he spent (based upon the fact that the trip was revenue-generating for the trucking company).

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law(LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Gadalean v. SAIF Corp., 364 Ore. 707, 2019 Ore. LEXIS 271 (Apr. 18, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 60.01.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see