Exchanging pats on the back with fellow blogger; wise words on workers comp
Workers Comp Insider is one of the blogs I like to read.
They read this blawg as well, and have this nice compliment for it in connection with this post on overtime.
I, in turn recommend this post of theirs: “The workers’ compensation crisis: a labor viewpoint,” particularly for this sound advice on work comp costs:
[T]he best way to control your experience and your costs is to ensure that no injuries occur; the second best way to control your costs is to treat injured workers well and fairly, provide excellent medical care, and help workers to recover and get back to work as soon as possible; that, and taking the trouble to become an educated, savvy, and active consumer of the administrative services that your insurer provides. At an average 1.8% of payroll, managing your workers compensation experience must become a core corporate competency. Read more
On “help[ing] workers to recover and get back to work as soon as possible,” I’ll add this thought.
From my management employment law perspective, we sometimes look at possible termination of an employee who has been out on comp solely in employment law terms, evaluating risk of ADA, FMLA, and/or work comp retaliation liability. Work comp is not our thing.
Sometimes termination is the right decision, particularly if continued temporary arrangements to get the work done are proving infeasible.
But we are not the work comp attorneys, and the client may not be looking at that side of the equation.
If employment is terminated, it will not help (and probably hurt) in terms of the objective of getting the employee back to work and thus cutting or eliminating continuing comp costs.
The employer’s on the hook for those costs, whether the person remains on the payroll or not; keeping them on the payroll may help control the costs if there is any prospect of getting them back to work.
