Injured Employee

Rockie · January 2002

Need question anwered ASAP.

We have an employee who was injured on the job. He has a lot of PTO time. Under FMLA, we require employees to burn their PTO and then use the rest of FMLA as unpaid leave. My question is: on WC payment - does WC start paying after the PTO is burned up or do they pay in conjunction with PTO? I am sure there must be a coordination of benefits so the employee does not get paid double.

Thanks for your help on this!

Margaret Morford · January 2002

Rockie,

Your concern is a valid one. Most companies do not allow employees to use PTO to supplement WC because it kills any incentative the employee has to return to work. A few employers will let employees use PTO for any waiting periods under WC, but most not even that. At the time WC kicks in, the employee is only allowed to collect the WC benefit. None allow the employee to substitute PTO for WC. They still get certified for FMLA for a WC injury. You need to spell this out in your PTO policy. Hope that helps. Call me if you have questions.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Down_the_Middle · January 2002

I can't imagine your state handling this differently, but every other state I know commences lost time indemnity payments to the employee based on the date of accident. W/comp payments are not coordinated with any other employer paid time, so if you choose to permit the employee to supplement w/comp with sick or vac, then that's your call.

We permit employees to supplement vac or sick time to ensure a full paycheck. While there is a slight risk in having the employee delay their return to work,(becuz they're getting a full paycheck), I've found that this is minimal vs. leaving the individual on w/comp only which quickly becomes an E/R's problem. I prefer to manage the employee back to work and can do this easier if they are getting a normal paycheck............ Some will disagree, but this has been my experience.

OhioSmallEmployer · January 2002

You might also want to check with your state laws. In Ohio, an injured worker is still entitled to his compensation if the employer pays him/her for personal time or vacation time while off work. They do that because the injured worker would be entitled to that time off if he/she was not injured and it wouldn't be fair to the employee to require them to take it for a work related injury.

Injured Employee

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