Editor’s comment: These questions were asked by a client and we provided our thoughts. We would love to hear yours about these tough issues.
The background to the questions:
- Illinois Employer A doesn’t exactly have a light duty program.
- The injured worker will eventually be able to return to full work at Illinois Employer A when recovered from an undisputed work injury.
- During their recovery, the employer sends them to volunteer in a non-paid position at a not-for-profit organization.
- TTD was paid while the employee was showing up and working at the not-for-profit organization.
- Their goal was to avoid having the worker sitting at home watching Oprah.
Can the claimant refuse such work?
In the recent ruling in Interstate Scaffolding, the Illinois Supreme Court cited Hartlein v. Illinois Power and Hayden v. IWCC to rule an injured worker who is recovering from injury has to do the work a doctor says they can do.
We feel if they refuse such work, TTD is not due.
Is it vocational rehabilitation to put a worker into a light duty position at a charitable or not-for-profit company?
Without intending to be rude, the answer is nobody knows.
Vocational rehabilitation is not clearly defined in the statute or rules.
We have no problem calling it vocational rehabilitation to put someone into such a position because you are rehabbing them to return to their vocation!
But it truly doesn’t make much of a difference—you owe either temporary total disability or temporary partial disability in Illinois if a worker returns to an unpaid position or a low-paid light duty position while recovering from a work-related injury.
What if they get injured in the light duty position?
See the analysis in ABF Freight Systems v. The Workers’ Compensation Commission
We don’t agree with it but that appears to be the law in this state and we have to adjust.
Post Provided by Gene Keefe of Keefe, Campbell & Associates, LLC. The firm was started by
Eugene F. Keefe, Michael J. Danielewicz, John P.
Campbell, Joseph R. Needham and Shawn R. Biery with
the goal of providing high-quality and cost-effective
civil litigation services for the defense of
self-insured employers and insurance carriers.
