Under the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act, an injured employee has 120 days from the date of the injury to inform the employer of the work-related injury; however, this period does not begin running "until the employe[e] knows, or by the exercise of reasonable diligence should know, of the existence of the injury and its possible relationship to his employment." (Credit: danielfela/Shutterstock.com)

On July 14, 2019, Kelly Twaroski smacked his head on an overhead pipe while working as a chemical operator for BASF Corporation. The pain, according to Twaroski, "was more like a little bee sting," and he only experienced a slight tingling in his hands, which did not prevent him from completing his shift or the rest of that work week.

The plant then closed for one week, during which the tingling in Twaroski's hands worsened to the point that shortly after the plant reopened he informed his supervisor that he could not come to work because he did not feel he could properly execute the functions of his job. However, he still did not report the July 14 incident, allegedly because he did not experience any neck pain or think his tingling hands were connected to the incident.

Under the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act, an injured employee has 120 days from the date of the injury to inform the employer of the work-related injury; however, this period does not begin running  "until the employe[e] knows, or by the exercise of reasonable diligence should know, of the existence of the injury and its possible relationship to his employment." The latter part of this statute is sometimes called "the discovery rule."