Employers in Texas have a duty to provide a safe working environment for their employees, whether the work is being conducted on land or at sea. When employers fail to provide a safe working environment and employees suffer injuries on the job, personal injury lawsuits can result.

In cases where the work is being performed at sea, lawsuits are often brought under the Jones Act. The Jones Act allows maritime workers to sue their employers when they have been injured at sea due to the employer's negligence.

Any worker on all types of maritime vessels, including boats, ships, barges, tugboats, cruise ships, tour boats, fishing vessels, drilling vessels and ferries are covered under the Jones Act.

In a Jones Act lawsuit, there is one primary issue and that is whether the vessel was "seaworthy." This means that the injured maritime worker can sue his employer under a strict liability theory, and so does not need to show that his employer knew the ship was unsafe, just that the ship was in fact unsafe and he or she was injured as a result.

In an example of a recent Jones Act lawsuit, a Nueces County resident has sued his employer in Galveston County Court after sustaining a "severe" back injury while working on an oil rig. The worker claimed that Hercules Offshore Inc. acted negligently by failing to address known ergonomic risk factors, which led to his back injury.

In his lawsuit, the worker said that he worked for Hercules for six years as a floor hand and roustabout and was hurt performing heavy lifting and moving without the aid of a crane or lift aboard. Ultimately, the worker said that this resulted in an unseaworthy vessel, and the employer is responsible for said injuries.

Source: The Southeast Texas Record, "Injured rig worker says company had no ergonomic program to limit injuries," John Suayan, Dec. 12, 2011