Defense Base Act

Defense Base Act Worker's Compensation Claims

Over the past fifteen years, many civilian workers have been hired by American companies to work on projects overseas. Some have worked on the facilities used in Gulf War I and Gulf War II and even larger numbers of workers will be heading to Iraq, Afghanistan and neighboring countries to work on the rebuilding process under contracts with the United States Government. Workers are usually hired on a contract basis at wage levels well in excess of those available in the States, based in no small part on the fact that the various job sites tend to be a bit more dangerous and difficult.

The fact that these jobs involve higher risk often leads to a greater number of work related injuries. In some cases, the employers set up health insurance plans to cover such injuries, but in most instances the worker is covered under the Defense Base Act, a federal workers' compensation law. Under that law, injured workers are eligible to receive weekly benefits for time lost from work or lost pay, as well as complete coverage for health care. Further, if the injuries are to the extremities resulting in a permanent impairment they can be compensated with what is sometimes a large award for permanent disability benefits. Even if the injury is not to the extremities, if it results in a later inability to perform the same or similar job, the injured worker may be entitled to receive an award for additional, substantial benefits for loss of wage earning capacity.

A cautionary note: the Defense Base Act requires notice of the injury to be given in writing to the employer within thirty days, and any actual claim for benefits must be filed within one year of the date of injury. Most employers simply do not warn injured workers of these requirements. Failure to follow these rules could result in a denial of benefits, leaving the worker to bear the entire cost of the injury.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING THE DEFENSE BASE ACT (DBA) APPLICATION

Full Name of Insured or Company and Complete Mailing Address:

This is whoever has the contract. Generally, it is a company name, but it could be an Independent Consultant, hence asking for the full name of the insured or company. It should be as it is on your contract or the contract from the prime contractor if you are a subcontractor. You do not need to list the names of the employees (or consultants, if hired by a company) who are actually going to be doing the work overseas as the policy will be in the name of the contract holder.

Telephone Number and Fax Number:

Contact Person: This would be the person we send the complete policy and invoice to (generally the person who contacts GAP, Inc. for the coverage, but may be someone else in your company—if so, please be sure they are aware that they will be receiving this policy from GAP, Inc).

Payroll Records Contact: This should be a person in your accounting department that we could contact with any questions regarding payments. However, we generally will contact the contact person listed on the application first.

Coverage Effective Date: This is generally the date an employee leaves the U.S. to do the work, or, if outside of the U.S., the date they actually start working. All initial policies will be open for 1 year from this date, with renewal an option, if needed. If you need to add or increase coverage during the policy period, please indicate a new effective date for the change, as the policy period will remain the same based on the original effective date.

Contract Number: This is your specific contract number. If you are a subcontractor, please indicate the prime contractor’s contract number and not your subcontract number.

Total Payroll: There should be only one (1) figure on the application for payroll, regardless of how many people are traveling to do the work. Payroll should be direct salary (plus overseas recruitment incentive, danger/hazard pay, and post differential if any of these apply). To calculate, you would take the daily rate of each worker x the number of working days only and this would equal the payroll. For example, you have 5 people working overseas on the contract for $500 per day, for 15 days. The total payroll you would indicate on the application would be $37,500. We would then take the $37,500 and multiply it by the rate for the coverage and that would equal the premium we would charge. You can also include the payroll for consultants here to be covered under your policy.

A copy of the Statement of Work to be performed

Principal Country(ies) in which contract will be performed

Date, Signature and Title: We have an e-mail version of our application (a word version document) which can be completed, saved and e-mailed back to us at rogan@gaprotection.com . This method is preferred, and the date, signature and title should be also typed on the application even if you do not have an electronic signature. One copy returned is all that is needed; you do not need to fax a signed copy or send the original by mail.

Notes:

Please do not complete and return the application to us if you have not actually been awarded a contract.  If you need to know the cost for bidding purposes, please use the example above under payroll to calculate the cost.

All of the policies we issue for this coverage are annual (1 year policies) however, we only bill premiums based on the time overseas for the workers.  Unless the workers will be overseas for at least 1 year where you can give an annual payroll, the policy can be endorsed as needed during the policy year for additional trips or new contracts to add, etc. at that time.

This policy is renewable, if needed, with a renewal sheet being sent to you approximately 1 month prior to your policy expiration

This policy is audited at the end of your policy year, which is basically a worksheet that we will send indicating the contract number(s) and payroll(s) that were given to us during the year.  You would then indicate the actual payroll for the contract and we would adjust the payrolls accordingly.