Court says worker's picnic injury not work related: Employee says he was paid to play that day

When William Gooden's bosses made the offer, the decision was asimple one.

Work a full day as a machine operator, he was told, or work only ahalf-day, while spending the other half playing volleyball, footballand the egg toss at the annual company picnic.

Gooden, like so many other employees at the Allstate printingplant in Wheeling, opted for the company picnic.

But it was after the egg toss and during a volleyball game thatGooden said he felt tightness in his lower back.

He sat out the rest of the picnic and worked his half-day, but bythe weekend, he said, the pain was too much to bear.

A few months later, he was undergoing back surgery. …