Hurt at Newport News Shipyard? How the Yard Sorts Federal from State Claims

Injuries inside the Newport News Shipyard (NNS) often fall under the federal Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act because that law covers shipbuilders, ship repairmen, ship breakers, and longshoremen, and the yard sits on the James River. However, some Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) shipyard employees will have Virginia workers’ compensation claims instead. Where you were standing and what you were doing that shift decide which one you get.

Newport News Shipbuilding injury claims start with these questions: where were you, and what were your job duties when you got hurt? My Virginia Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act guide explains the federal program from start to finish, and this page applies it to the yard. The answer sorts your claim into the federal system or the state system; since July 1, 2012, Virginia has not allowed an injured employee covered under the Longshore Act to also seek benefits under Virginia workers’ compensation, Va. Code § 65.2-101 (definition of “employee”).

If you want the two systems side by side, my Longshore Act vs. Virginia workers’ comp page lays out the main differences. This page has a narrower goal: to help an injured Newport News Shipyard worker figure out which system fits the shift they were working, and why that call matters.

The short answer for a hurt Newport News Shipyard worker

If you were hurt on a ship, in a dry dock, or in a shop inside the main yard fence, the federal Longshore Act likely covers you. The law names shipbuilders, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that shops far from the water are part of the shipyard – a foundry more than half a mile from the river has been held part of the shipyard. The situs section below walks through the key cases.

Security officers at the gates and offices, or those who exclusively perform clerical, security, or data work for the shipyard, are usually excluded from coverage under the Longshore Act, 33 U.S.C. § 902(3)(A). The exclusion applies only because Virginia covers those workers; the statute keeps them under federal law if no state system does. The same applies to anyone employed by a third-party supplier, transportation company, or vendor who gets hurt at the Newport News Shipyard while temporarily doing work that the shipyard usually doesn’t do, § 902(3)(D). But that doesn’t mean you lose coverage for occupational injuries. Rather, the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act is your remedy.

The Longshore Act also excludes coverage for federal civilians who get hurt at the shipyard, 33 U.S.C. § 903(b). A SUPSHIP Newport News inspector hurt on the same deck as a shipbuilder has a claim under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, not the Longshore Act. Active-duty sailors assigned to a ship in overhaul are outside the Longshore Act too. Their remedy is military disability benefits. It is not the Jones Act, and it is not workers’ comp of either kind.

Since 2012 this is an either/or call: Virginia workers’ comp is an option only if the Longshore Act does not cover you. It is also a call worth money. The Longshore Act pays more, and NNS, which insures itself, knows that as well as I do. If the yard’s claims office steers you toward a state claim, ask why.

How does a claim start inside NNS’s process?

Your claim starts the moment you tell the company you were hurt. What you say, how you say it, and where you say it matters, because the company’s paperwork often becomes the first record of the injury.

1. Report it right away. The Longshore Act requires written notice within 30 days of the injury, or when you knew it was work-related (33 U.S.C. § 912(a)). Virginia has a similar 30-day window (Va. Code § 65.2-600). You can call Newport News Shipyard’s Workers’ Compensation Department at (757) 380-2647 or 1-800-272-2884.
2. Expect NNS’s workers’ comp department to investigate. The yard runs its own workers’ compensation office, and its claims staff review injury reports to decide whether the company is liable. In federal cases, the company – HII – has appeared as a self-insured employer, so there is often no outside insurance carrier in the middle. AIU Insurance Company is listed as HII’s state workers’ comp carrier as of November 2026.
3. Watch for the first report. Under the Longshore Act, the employer files its own injury report with the Department of Labor, 33 U.S.C. § 930(a). It then either starts paying or files a notice that it disputes the claim, 33 U.S.C. § 914.
4. File your own claim. The company’s report is not your claim. A Longshore claim must be filed within one year of the injury or of the last voluntary payment, 33 U.S.C. § 913(a), and a Virginia claim must be filed with the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission within two years of the accident, Va. Code § 65.2-601.

Look at the paperwork if you’re unsure whether Newport News Shipbuilding is treating your case as a federal or state one. Longshore claims use U.S. Department of Labor forms, while Virginia claims use forms from the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission.

Who works at Newport News Shipbuilding, and what hurts them?

Newport News Shipbuilding is a division of HII. It is the largest private employer in Hampton Roads and the largest industrial employer in the state, employing roughly 26,000 people. It is the only yard that builds the Navy’s aircraft carriers and one of two that build its nuclear submarines (WAVY, May 30, 2025).

The employees inside the fence are not all in the same legal position. On any given day, the yard holds:

• HII’s hourly shipbuilders: welders, shipfitters, pipefitters, electricians, painters, sheet metal workers, riggers, and crane operators.
• Salaried engineers, designers, planners, and supervisors.
• Security officers who staff the gates and patrol the yard.
• Subcontractor crews and Navy contractors brought in for specific jobs.
• Sailors assigned to ships in overhaul and federal employees who oversee the work.

That last group falls outside both the Longshore Act and the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act.

What the public record shows about injuries at the yard

Shipbuilding puts people at height, in tight spaces, and near heat, electricity, and heavy loads. And the injury statistics reflect these dangers. In 2024, Newport News Shipyard had 1,307 open injury cases – well above the national average.

The NNS incidents reported on the news also show the dangers:

• Falls into voids and tanks. In August 2019, a construction supervisor died after a fall while inspecting void spaces on the USS George Washington. OSHA later issued two serious citations and one willful citation tied to fall protection and accounting for workers, and its report described the penalties as pending and subject to change (WYDaily, March 2020).

• Falls from scaffolding. In September 2025, a Navy contractor working on the USS John C. Stennis fell from scaffolding and suffered life-threatening injuries (WTKR and WAVY, Sept. 9, 2025).

• Bad air in enclosed spaces. In April 2026, nine shipbuilders were sent to the hospital after reporting symptoms consistent with carbon monoxide exposure inside a submarine unit (WTKR, April 29, 2026).

After high-profile incidents, including the potential carbon monoxide exposure and a state citation for dumping jet fuel into the James River, NNS held a safety stand-down in July 2026 (WHRO, July 14, 2026). Strains, crush injuries, and slow-building damage like hearing loss rarely make the news, but they make up much of what injured shipbuilders bring to a lawyer.

Subcontractors and Navy contractors on the yard

If you work for a subcontractor or a Navy contractor, the same Longshore status and situs tests that apply to NNS employees apply to you. The main difference is who pays benefits.

Your own employer, or its insurance carrier, usually owes your benefits, not HII. That matters when your employer is small or comes from out of state. Under the Longshore Act, a contractor can become liable for a subcontractor’s employees if the subcontractor fails to secure comp coverage, 33 U.S.C. § 904(a). Virginia has a similar rule for general contractors, covered on the statutory employer page.

Contract workers also tend to move between yards and jobs more often. Keep track of who signed your paychecks on the day you were hurt, because that company is usually where the claim begins.

Which parts of Newport News Shipyard are covered by the Longshore Act, and which are not?

Federal coverage needs two things. You must be a maritime worker, which lawyers call “status,” and you must be hurt in a covered place, which we call “situs.” The Virginia Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act page explains both tests. This section is about how they come out at this yard.

Status: Is your job maritime?

Many NNS injury cases are straightforward on status. If you’re hurt while loading, unloading, building, or repairing a vessel, you satisfy the “status” test. It is enough that you spend only some of your time doing these activities. See Northeast Marine Terminal Co. v. Caputo, 432 U.S. 249, 273, 6 BRBS 150, 165 (1977).

More complicated cases arise when you get hurt doing work the shipyard considers clerical, secretarial, security, or data-processing work. The question becomes whether your work is an integral ingredient in the shipbuilding process or a support service. White v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 633 F.2d 1070 (4th Cir. 1980) illustrates this. In that case, the court held that a storekeeper’s color coding of pipe for use in ship fabrication was the first step in altering the pipe for ship construction. Therefore, the claimant’s work was an integral part of shipbuilding, and he was covered under the Longshore Act.

Situs: where were you hurt?

The injury must happen on navigable water or on an adjoining “pier, wharf, dry dock, terminal, building way, marine railway, or other adjoining area” used to build or repair vessels, 33 U.S.C. § 903(a). On the main yard, that covers more ground than many workers expect.

Work aboard a ship tied up at the pier or floating in the river is the easiest case. A worker hurt on the water itself in the course of employment is covered, Director, OWCP v. Perini North River Associates, 459 U.S. 297 (1983) (finding coverage for an employee injured while performing his job on the deck of a cargo ship used to construct a sewage treatment plant extending over the river).

The harder cases come from shops and buildings on land. In Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v. Graham, 573 F.2d 167 (4th Cir. 1978), the court held that a submarine shop about 1,200 feet from the water and a foundry about 3,000 feet away were covered. They were integral parts of the shipyard. The Fourth Circuit later held that an area “adjoins” navigable water only if it touches or is contiguous with the water, Sidwell v. Express Container Services, Inc., 71 F.3d 1134 (4th Cir. 1995).

If there are other areas between the navigable waters and the area the injury occurred, the latter area does not adjoin the waters. For example, the Benefits Review Board has treated a company parking lot set apart from the yard by a public street and a security fence as a separate piece of property, not part of the shipyard, Griffin v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 32 BRBS 87 (1998). The BRB reached that holding although the shipyard owned and maintained the parking lot where the injury happened. A building off the main yard that does not touch the water raises the same question.

The worker who moves between the waterfront and the shop

Many shipbuilders spend one shift on a ship at the pier and the next in a fabrication shop. For them, the two tests work differently.

• Status follows your overall job. If your regular duties include work on vessels, a day spent in a shop does not erase your maritime status.
• Situs follows where you were standing. A shop inside the main yard is usually covered under Graham; however, Sidwell may bar a federal claim for an injury in a separate facility that doesn’t touch the water or is separated from the water by a different area.

So if you’re a pipefitter hurt on a carrier at the pier, NNS may not dispute coverage under the Longshore Act. But if you’re hurt in an off-site building, litigation may be necessary to determine whether the Longshore Act or the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act is your path.

Not sure if your shipyard injury is covered under the Longshore Act or State Workers’ Comp?

If you’re unsure whether federal or state law applies to your NNS injury, the best choice is to file a protective claim in both. The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission allows you to file an Assertion of Rights, which preserves your claim while keeping it off the hearing docket. While it remains pending, you can pursue the Longshore case.

Why is the Longshore or Virginia choice worth money?

You have several reasons to want your injury covered under the Longshore Act:

• The Longshore weekly maximum is 200 percent of the national average weekly wage, 33 U.S.C. § 906(b)(1); Virginia’s is 100 percent of the state average, Va. Code § 65.2-500.
• Virginia caps most claims at 500 weeks of indemnity benefits, Va. Code § 65.2-518; the Longshore Act has no matching cap on temporary total disability.
• Under the Longshore Act, you choose your treating physician, 33 U.S.C. § 907(b); in Virginia, you choose from a panel of at least three that the employer selects, Va. Code § 65.2-603.

The filing deadlines differ too. For a higher-wage shipbuilder with a long recovery, those differences can decide the outcome. The full comparison, with the current dollar figures, is on the Longshore Act vs. Virginia workers’ comp page.

What does the union do when a member is hurt at the shipyard?

United Steelworkers Local 8888 represents nearly 10,000 employees at NNS. If you’re a member, your union stewards can help you report an injury or unsafe condition and push back on discipline, light-duty disputes, and other contract issues through the grievance process. Union safety staff can also work alongside OSHA and the company when the yard investigates a serious accident.

Other smaller local bargaining units have a presence at NNS, including Aramark workers represented by UNITE HERE Local 23.

A grievance and a workers’ comp claim are separate tracks, regardless of whether you file under the Longshore Act or state workers’ compensation. You can pursue both, and winning a grievance does not file or protect your comp claim. Both systems bar employers from retaliating against a worker for claiming benefits, 33 U.S.C. § 948a and Va. Code § 65.2-308.

Are there other ways to recover damages from a Newport News Shipyard injury?

If a vessel owner or another contractor working in the yard caused your injury, you may have a damages claim in addition to a Longshore claim, but the rules are narrow. A shipbuilder generally cannot sue HII, even when HII also owns or operates the vessel, 33 U.S.C. § 905(b), and Navy-owned ships bring their own federal procedures. Do not settle with an outside company without your employer’s written approval, or you can lose future comp benefits under 33 U.S.C. § 933(g); the Section 5(b) vessel negligence and shipyard third-party claims page explains how these cases work.

One law that does not apply to shipbuilders is the Jones Act. It covers seamen, the crew of a vessel, and a shipbuilder working aboard a carrier under construction or a submarine in overhaul is not crew, however many hours they spend on the ship. If you were working as crew on a tug, barge, dredge, or other vessel in the harbor when you were hurt, that is a different claim with different rules, and we handle those as well.

Hearing loss follows its own rules: the Supreme Court treats work-related hearing loss under the Longshore Act as a scheduled injury, paid under 33 U.S.C. § 908(c)(13), Bath Iron Works Corp. v. Director, OWCP, 506 U.S. 153 (1993). The clock starts when you get the results of an audiogram showing the loss and you know it’s tied to work, § 908(c)(13)(D).

What should you do in the first week after a yard injury?

The first week builds the record your claim will rest on. A few steps protect both the federal and state options.

• Report the injury in writing and keep a copy.
• Get treated, and tell every provider exactly how and where you were hurt.
• Write down the precise location: the ship, pier, dry dock, building number, or shop.
• Note who saw it and who you reported it to.
• Keep your pay stubs, overtime records, and any HII or Department of Labor paperwork.
• Do not give a recorded statement to an outside company or sign a release before you get advice.

The deadlines start running on the day you are hurt. If you are unsure which system covers your shift, the answer depends on facts that are easiest to pin down early.

Keep Reading

• Virginia Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act: how the federal program works from injury to award.
• Longshore Act vs. Virginia workers’ comp: the full comparison of benefits, doctors, and deadlines.
• Section 5(b) vessel negligence and shipyard third-party claims: suing a vessel owner or outside contractor.
• Newport News Workers’ Comp Lawyer: our Hampton Roads office and the local hearing office.