DoL: Employee Not Required to Substitute WC Benefits When Taking Family Leave
- The U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division earlier this week issued an opinion letter stating that employers cannot require employees to substitute accrued paid time off during a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave where the employee is also receiving benefits under a state or local paid family or medical leave program.
- “If an employee takes leave and receives payments under a disability benefit plan or workers’ compensation program and the leave also qualifies as FMLA leave due to the employee’s own serious health condition, it must be designated by the employer as FMLA leave and counted against the employee’s FMLA leave entitlement,” the Jan. 14 opinion letter said.
- The letter went on to explain that in cases where the employee has both employer-provided paid leave and disability or workers’ compensation benefits, “the employer and the employee may mutually agree, where state law permits, that the employer-provided accrued paid leave will supplement such benefits, such as where a disability or workers’ compensation program only provides replacement income for two-thirds of an employee’s salary.”
- According to The National Law Review, the opinion letter doesn’t have the force of law but lays out the agency’s enforcement position.
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Kicked 25 Times in 11 Days, Virginia Teacher Denied WC Benefits
- The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC) this week upheld a deputy commissioner’s denial of benefits to a Loudon County school behavioral assistant who was kicked in both knees 25 times over a period of 11 days.
- The denial found the injury was due to cumulative trauma, and which did not stem from an identifiable incident, is not compensable as a workplace injury by accident.
- In an earlier hearing, the assistant admitted that his bilateral knee injury happened over time and was not the result of a single identifiable event.
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Pinnacol Advises On WC Coverage Adjustments to Match Payroll Changes
- Pinnacol Assurance is advising employers to take necessary steps to sync their workers’ compensation coverage with changes to their payrolls.
- The Colorado-based mutual noted that at the start of policy year, employers provide their insurer with an estimate of their payroll for the coming year. The insurer uses that number to generate an estimated premium.
- However, at the policy’s year-end, the insurer’s audit determines the actual payroll, and if the estimate was too low, the employer will owe more to the insurer.
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