Chapter 152

Section 26. If an employee who has not given notice of his claim of common law rights of action under section twenty-four, or who has given such notice and has waived the same, receives a personal injury arising out of and in the course of his employment, or arising out of an ord…

Section 26A. Dependents shall not be precluded from recovery under this chapter, nor shall the insurance company be relieved from making payment to the commonwealth under section sixty-five, for death by suicide of the employee, if it be shown by the weight of the evidence that, …

Section 26B. When an employee employed in the concurrent service of two or more insured employers receives a personal injury compensable under this chapter while performing a duty which is common to such employers, the liability of their insurers under this chapter shall be joint…

Section 27. If the employee is injured by reason of his serious and wilful misconduct, he shall not receive compensation; but this provision shall not bar compensation to his dependents if the injury results in death.

Section 27A. In any claim for compensation where it is found that at the time of hire the employee knowingly and willfully made a false representation as to his physical condition and the employer relied upon the false representation in hiring such employee, when such employee kn…

Section 28. If the employee is injured by reason of the serious and wilful misconduct of an employer or of any person regularly intrusted with and exercising the powers of superintendence, the amounts of compensation hereinafter provided shall be doubled. In case the employer is …

Section 29. No compensation pursuant to section thirty-four or thirty-five shall be paid for any injury which does not incapacitate the employee from earning full wages for a period of five or more calendar days. If incapacity extends for a period of twenty-one days or more, comp…

Section 2A. Every act, in amendment of this chapter, in effect on the effective date of this section or thereafter becoming effective which increases or decreases the amount or amounts of compensation payable to an injured employee or his dependents including amounts deducted for…

Section 30. The insurer shall furnish to an injured employee adequate and reasonable health care services, and medicines if needed, together with the expenses necessarily incidental to such services, and in the case of an injured employee, a physical examination shall be given at…

Section 30A. Any medical report pertaining to an injury which appears to be compensable shall be furnished by the physician or other medical provider to the employee, the insurer, and the department within fourteen days of completion of the examination of the employee. Each failu…

Section 30E. It shall be the policy of the department to encourage and assist in the development of voluntary agreements between injured employees and insurers to provide and utilize vocational rehabilitation services when necessary to return such employees to suitable gainful em…

Section 30F. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations for the identification and reporting to the office of education and vocational rehabilitation of cases in which vocational rehabilitation services may be required. The purpose of said rules and regulations shall…

Section 30G. The office of education and vocational rehabilitation shall contact and meet with each injured employee who it believes may require vocational rehabilitation services in order to return to suitable employment. Any such employee who refuses to meet with the office of …

Section 30H. If the insurer and employee fail to agree to a vocational rehabilitation program, the employee may apply to the office of education and vocational rehabilitation for vocational rehabilitation services. The office shall determine if vocational rehabilitation is necess…

Section 30I. The department shall assist and cooperate with the department of unemployment assistance, the United States Department of Labor, and any other appropriate state or federal agency, in attempting to make available to disabled employees eligible to receive compensation …

Section 31. If death results from the injury, the insurer shall pay the following dependents of the employee, including his or her children by a former spouse, wholly dependent upon his or her earnings for support at the time of his or her injury, or at the time of his or her dea…

Section 32. The following persons shall be conclusively presumed to be wholly dependent for support upon a deceased employee: (a) A wife upon a husband with whom she lives at the time of his death, or from whom, at the time of his death, the department shall find the wife was liv…

Section 33. In all cases, the insurer shall pay the reasonable expenses of burial, not exceeding 8 times the average weekly wage in the commonwealth as determined pursuant to subsection (a) of section 29 of chapter 151A.

Section 34. While the incapacity for work resulting from the injury is total, during each week of incapacity the insurer shall pay the injured employee compensation equal to sixty percent of his or her average weekly wage before the injury, but not more than the maximum weekly co…

Section 34A. While the incapacity for work resulting from the injury is both permanent and total, the insurer shall pay to the injured employee, following payment of compensation provided in sections thirty-four and thirty-five, a weekly compensation equal to two-thirds of his av…

Section 34B. October first of each year shall be the review date for the purposes of this section. Any person receiving or entitled to receive benefits under the provisions of section thirty-one or section thirty-four A whose benefits are based on a date of personal injury at lea…

Section 35. While the incapacity for work resulting from the injury is partial, during each week of incapacity the insurer shall pay the injured employee a weekly compensation equal to sixty percent of the difference between his or her average weekly wage before the injury and th…

Section 35A. Where the injured employee has persons conclusively presumed to be dependent upon him or in fact so dependent, the sum of six dollars shall be added to the weekly compensation payable under sections thirty-four, thirty-four A and thirty-five, for each person wholly d…

Section 35B. An employee who has been receiving compensation under this chapter and who has returned to work for a period of not less than two months shall, if he is subsequently injured and receives compensation, be paid such compensation at the rate in effect at the time of the…

Section 35C. When there is a difference of five years or more between the date of injury and the initial date on which the injured worker or his survivor first became eligible for benefits under section thirty-one, thirty-four, thirty-four A, or section thirty-five, the applicabl…

Section 35D. For purposes of sections thirty-four, thirty-four A and thirty-five, the weekly wage the employee is capable of earning, if any, after the injury, shall be the greatest of the following:— (1) The actual earnings of the employee during each week. (2) The earnings that…

Section 35E. Any employee who is at least sixty-five years of age and has been out of the labor force for a period of at least two years and is eligible for old age benefits pursuant to the federal social security act or eligible for benefits from a public or private pension whic…

Section 36. (1) In addition to all other compensation to the employee shall be paid the sums hereafter designated for the following specific injuries; provided, however, that the employee has not died from any cause within thirty days of such injury: (a) For the loss by enucleati…

Section 36A. In the event that an injured employee who has become entitled to compensation under section thirty-six dies before fully collecting the said compensation, the balance remaining shall become due and payable in a lump sum to his dependents, or if none, to his surviving…

Section 36B. (1) No benefits shall be payable under section thirty-four or section thirty-four A for any week in which the employee has received or is receiving unemployment compensation benefits. (2) Any employee claiming or receiving benefits under section thirty-five who may b…

Section 37. Whenever an employee who has a known physical impairment which is due to any previous accident, disease or any congenital condition and is, or is likely to be, a hindrance or obstacle to his employment, and who, in the course of and arising out of his employment, rece…

Section 37A. Any employee who is a war veteran and disabled as the result of his military or naval service and has been certified as such by the United States Veterans Administration and who, in the course of and arising out of his employment, receives a personal injury which is …

Section 38. Except as expressly provided elsewhere in this chapter, no savings or insurance of the injured employee independent of this chapter shall be considered in determining compensation payable thereunder, nor shall benefits derived from any other source than the insurer be…

Section 39. The compensation payable in case of the death of the injured employee shall be paid to his legal representative; or, if he has no legal representative, to his dependents; or, if he leaves no dependents, to the persons to whom payment of the expenses for the last sickn…

Section 40. If an injured employee is mentally incompetent or is a minor when any right or privilege accrues to him, his guardian or next friend may in his behalf claim and exercise such right or privilege.

Section 41. No proceedings for compensation payable under this chapter shall be maintained unless a notice thereof shall have been given to the insurer or insured as soon as practicable after the happening thereof, and unless any claim for compensation due with respect to such in…

Section 42. The said notice shall be in writing, and shall state in ordinary language the time, place and cause of the injury, and shall be signed by the person injured, or, in case of his death, by his legal representative, or by a person to whom payments may be due under this c…

Section 43. The notice shall be served upon the insurer or an officer or agent thereof, or upon the insured, or upon one insured person if there is more than one, or upon any officer or agent of a corporation if the insured is a corporation, by delivering it to the person on whom…

Section 44. Such notice shall not be held invalid or insufficient by reason of any inaccuracy in stating the time, place or cause of the injury unless it is shown that it was the intention to mislead and that the insurer was in fact misled thereby. Want of notice shall not bar pr…

Section 45. After an employee has received an injury, and from time to time thereafter during the continuance of his disability he shall, if requested by the insurer or insured, submit to an examination by a registered physician, furnished and paid for by the insurer or the insur…

Section 46. No agreement by any employee to waive his right to compensation shall be valid. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit the parties from entering into an agreement to submit to binding arbitration pursuant to the provisions of section ten as an exclusive a…

Section 46A. If medical, dental, hospital or lost time weekly benefits have been paid or furnished under any group or nongroup policy of accident and health insurance or certificate providing for hospital, medical or dental service benefits of any hospital, medical or dental serv…

Section 47. No payment shall be assignable or subject to attachment or be liable in any way for debts, except to a veteran's agent or the secretary of veterans' services as and to the extent permitted by section five of chapter one hundred and fifteen and except as permitted to t…

Section 48. (1) Under the conditions and limitations specified in this chapter, the insurer and employee may, with the written consent of the employer if such employer is an experience modified insured, by an agreement pursuant to section nineteen, redeem any liability for compen…

Section 49. The claim for compensation shall be in writing, and shall state the date, place, cause and nature of the injury. It shall be signed by the person injured, or, in the event of his death, by his legal representative, or by a person to whom payments may be due, or by a p…

Section 5. The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations consistent with this chapter for carrying out the functions of the department. Such rules and amendments thereto shall comply with the filing provisions of section five of chapter thirty A and such regulations sha…