Equality Critical In Return-to-Work Plans

Chicago

Putting injured workers on light duty as their wounds heal is a good way to reduce lost time days, but policies for alternative duty need to treat all employees equally, the risk manager for one municipality warned here.

During a roundtable discussion at the recent Public Risk Management Association conference in Chicago, Debra Carson, risk manager for the City of Longmont, Colo., described how a “disparate treatment” lawsuit spotlighted the need for change in the citys employment policies.

Longmont previously had established a limited number of alternative duty days for people who were injured on the job, she said. Employees who couldnt return to work following their workers compensation claim began a 12-week Family Medical Leave Act benefit that could ultimately end with termination, she said.

“What we found out was that there were people with injuries or illness not caused on the job” who were not able to perform essential job functions, Ms. Carson said. However, some of these employees, it was discovered, “were being accommodated by their supervisors, but their time wasnt ticking. This happened because we didnt have a system set up.”

This was first brought to her attention by the police department, she said, which “had people with, for instance, a water skiing injury, who were on light duty and the clock never ticked. So they could be placed on light duty for years,” because the injury was not work related, she said.

The situation caused “rumblings of a disparate treatment claim” by employees who felt it was unfair that someone injured on the job was given limited alternative duty, while an employee who became ill outside of work had unlimited alternative duty.

“They were absolutely correct and it was something we hadnt thought of,” she said. “So we updated our policy and I think we are one of the few [municipalities] that have done so.”

Longmont adopted a new policy that limits alternative duty time for all employees to 24 weeks–”end of story,” she said. “What were trying to do now is stack[ing] the Family and Medical Leave Act [benefit] on top of that.”

A return-to-work program assigning employees to light duty when necessary resulted in lower amounts of lost time from work for Lake County, Colo., said Brandt Byrd, senior personnel technician.

Important to the success of the program is knowing “what their jobs entail and what employees can or cant do based on their injury,” he said.

A job description is given to the employees medical doctor, who can then more accurately assess whether the employee is capable of performing his or her job, he said.

Mr. Byrd said job descriptions are easily available because his department is linked with human resources.

“You want to try to keep your lost time days down,” he said. Lost time is more frequent in areas like law enforcement and road construction that are “traditionally higher in workers compensation rates as far as cost per year,” he said. “Being self insured, we look at preventing injuries and minimizing exposures.”

Actively involving employees in safety programs is another way to reduce the number of days lost, Mr. Byrd said.

To keep employees involved, one department holds a contest that culminates in an annual awards breakfast, he said.

Prizes are given to areas that reach established goals for number of days missed, number of accidents, and number of training programs attended.

“This has absolutely helped bring down the number of accidents and days missed,” he said.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, September 3, 2001. Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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