Division of Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation (DLHWC)
About Longshore
The mission of DLHWC is to minimize the impact of land based, maritime employment injuries and deaths on the injured employees and their families by ensuring that workers' compensation benefits are provided promptly and properly under the following laws:
- Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA)
- Defense Base Act (DBA)
- Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentalities Act (NAFIA)
- Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA)
Benefits paid under the LHWCA and its extensions totaled $1.4 billion in CY2014. Excluding beneficiaries who are covered by the Special Workers’ Compensation Fund, the DLHWC generally does not issue benefit decisions or payments directly to injured workers. The role of the DLHWC is to provide technical assistance, dispute resolution services and oversee benefit delivery by the self-insured employers and insurance carriers it authorizes and regulates.
Any party to a claim or the party’s representative may now choose to waive service by certified mail and instead receive service via email. This electronic service option applies only to compensation orders, not other communications from the OWCP/DLHWC. To learn more, click HERE to access Industry Notice No. 152.
