WC 00 03 13: Waiver of Our Right to Recover From Others

What WC 00 03 13 waives

Workers compensation pays an injured employee's medical bills and lost wages regardless of fault. The policy also gives the carrier a right to recover those payments from anyone else liable for the injury. On a construction site the obvious target is the general contractor or owner, through a lien on the employee's third-party recovery or a subrogation action by the carrier.

WC 00 03 13, Waiver of Our Right to Recover From Others, keeps the carrier from enforcing that right against the person or organization named in its schedule. The endorsement says the agreement applies only to the extent the named insured performs work under a written contract that requires it to obtain the waiver. The schedule can name specific parties, or describe them on a blanket basis, such as any person or organization for whom the named insured has agreed by written contract to furnish the waiver.

The waiver addresses the carrier's recovery right. It does not stop the injured employee from suing the general contractor directly in states that allow third-party actions; that exposure is handled by additional insured coverage and contractual indemnity on the general liability side.

How the waiver shows up after an injury

When a subcontractor's employee is injured, two tracks run in parallel. The employee files a compensation claim with the subcontractor's carrier, and may also sue the general contractor and owner for negligence. If the carrier has paid benefits and has not waived recovery, it can assert a lien against any recovery from the general contractor, or pursue you directly in subrogation.

With a valid waiver in place, the carrier cannot enforce that recovery against you. That changes the economics of the third-party suit: there is no compensation lien to satisfy out of a settlement with you and no separate subrogation action. Because the waiver depends on a written contract requiring it, the subcontract must be signed before the injury and must expressly require the workers compensation waiver.

Edition and state form comparison

Unlike ISO forms, the NCCI endorsement has not been reissued: WC 00 03 13 (Ed. 4-84) is the form carriers attach in NCCI states. Some states use their own versions. California policies use WC 04 03 06 and Texas policies use WC 42 03 04. Workers compensation in North Dakota, Ohio, Washington and Wyoming is written through monopolistic state funds, which do not issue the NCCI endorsement, so contract exhibits for work in those states need their own approach.

Carriers usually charge for the waiver under state rating rules, and many states treat a specific waiver and a blanket waiver differently. Some states restrict waivers of workers compensation recovery in certain construction contracts, so the exhibit should require the waiver to the extent permitted by law.

What to require in the subcontract

Require the waiver in the subcontract body, in words that satisfy the endorsement's written contract condition, and require the endorsement on the policy before mobilization. A blanket schedule is easier to maintain than named entities, but confirm that its description reaches the owner and every other party your prime contract protects.

• Statutory workers compensation for each state where work is performed, with that state listed on the policy.
• Employers Liability of not less than $1,000,000 each accident, $1,000,000 disease each employee and $1,000,000 disease policy limit.
• WC 00 03 13 or the applicable state waiver form, blanket or naming every party required by the prime contract.
• For monopolistic state work: the state fund certificate plus stop gap employers liability on the general liability policy.

How Pikorua Security verifies workers compensation waivers

Pikorua Security reads the workers compensation section of the ACORD 25 and the endorsement pages together. Rule WS-02 requires a waiver form that matches the state where the work is performed, so a Texas project expects WC 42 03 04 and a California project expects WC 04 03 06, and it confirms the schedule is blanket or names every required party. If the packet only shows a checked SUBR WVD box, the rule fails and the broker is asked for the endorsement.

For staffing agencies and logistics vendors working across many states, Pikorua Security maps each client site to its state, checks that the state appears on the policy, and treats monopolistic state work as its own rule, so a missing state fund certificate is never hidden behind a compliant NCCI policy.