By Jim Cline and Erica Shelley Nelson
Representing the Injured or Disabled Member
Part 34: Time Loss Benefits under Workers Compensation
This article is the 34th in a multiple part series covering the rights your injured and disabled members have and how you, as a union or guild representative, can best assist them. Over the several weeks and continuing for the next several weeks, we’ll be publishing, in various segments, information on how state and federal laws protect your members who are hurt or otherwise unable to work. We’ll cover topics including disability discrimination law, the FMLA, job protection rights under the CBA, workers compensation, disability benefits, and the right to bring a civil lawsuit.
The topics we are covering are addressed in detail in our newest book: HELPING THE INJURED OR DISABLED MEMBER: A GUIDEBOOK FOR THE WASHINGTON LAW ENFORCEMENT AND FIRE UNION REPRESENTATIVE. It is also our intention over the course of the next year to travel through the state and provide training to public safety union and guild representatives on how best to enforce these rights. Expect to hear more on that in the months ahead.
The 34th article in these newsletter series provides a discussion introducing the topic of workers compensation with several other L&I discussion to follow. For more information, visit our Premium Website . On the website you’ll find an on line version of the Injured or Disabled Member’s Guidebook and other information on the laws covering your members.
In addition to the right to medical treatment, discussed in the last article, the injured member also has a right to time loss compensation if he or she is temporarily unable to work as a result of an injury or occupational disease.[1] In order to qualify for time loss compensation, the injured member must provide a medical certification.
The time loss rate of compensation depends on the injured member’s wages, marital status and number of dependents.[2] Cost of living adjustments are added onto the base time loss rate annually on July 1. The time loss rate is calculated based on the worker’s wage of injury. The “daily wage” set by the Department may include shift differential, holiday pay, sick and vacation leave, and funeral leave.[3]
While claim allowance and medical certification is ordinarily sufficient for entitlement to time loss compensation, there are particular circumstances where an injured member may be excluded from receiving such benefits. For example, an injured member may be ineligible for time loss benefits if his or her employer continues to pay the member’s regular salary following the injury.[4] If the employer offers light duty work, and the medical provider releases the injured member to perform that work, then time lost benefits will be terminated regardless of whether the member accepts the job or not.[5] However, if the light duty assignment ends, but the injured member’s provider does not believe he or she is able to return to his or her usual job, then time loss benefits will resume.[6]
An injured member may also be entitled to partial time loss benefits, or loss of earning power benefits, when the member is able to work in some form, but is earning less. This situation may arise where an officer or firefighter can perform a different job on a light duty basis that has a lower rate of pay. Such officer in that circumstance could be entitled to loss of earning power benefits.
The calculation of benefits owed to police and firefighters while an employee is on time loss is often misunderstood and miscalculated. LEOFF members have particular benefits that many public agencies simply either do not understand or ignore. In the next section, we explain the process for calculating the proper time loss compensation of an officer or firefighter.
In the next article in this series, we’ll discuss the often confusing subject of how these time loss payments are to be coordinated with the LEOFF II supplement mandate.
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[1] RCW 51.32.090(1).
[2] For a single officer with no children, the time loss rate is 60%. An additional 5% is added if married, and 2% is added for each child, up to a maximum of five children. See RCW 51.08.060(1).
[3] See Fred Meyer, Inc. v. Shearer, 102 Wn.App. 336, 8 P.3d 310 (2000) review denied at 143 Wn.2d 1003, 21 P.3d 290 (2000).
[4] RCW 51.32.090(6).
[5] RCW 51.32.090(4).
[6] RCW 51.32.090(3).
