GQ Corner
Q. Can you please tell me what the rules are on paying for lost time for doctor/therapy appointments?
A. There is no rule to cite to that addresses this. If the claimant loses time from work to go to the doctor, and the time can’t be made up during the week or the employer doesn’t pay the claimant for this time, you’ll owe partial TIBS. In an ideal world, the claimant schedules the appointments outside of work hours, and to the extent that the work schedule allows, they should, but sometimes that simply isn’t possible. If the claimant is working nights and/or weekends, the appointments are probably easy to schedule and not conflict with work. If the claimant’s work schedule is M-F, 9AM-5PM, it may not be possible to get to the doctor’s appointments or therapy without missing some time from work. If the appointments cause missed time, you’ll have to compensate the claimant for that.
Q. I have a claimant who was attacked by a former employee. Per the claimant, she has never worked with the former employee – she is a new employee and the former employee was terminated over a year ago. However, the former employee, who was apparently banned from coming onto the property, was on the property on the day of the incident.
Per the claimant, the former employee has been known to come to the property and taunt/harass the current employees. The claimant stated that she went upstairs to the lounge prior to clocking in for work. She saw him in the lounge and immediately turned around to go back downstairs.
Per the claimant, the former employee saw her and started telling the claimant how horrible she was for working there and that the job had ruined his career – when the former employee pushed the claimant down the stairs.
Would this be compensable? The claimant had not yet clocked in for work. Per the employer, the claimant rides the bus and comes in early and will wait around before clocking in.
A. I think it would be compensable.
First, the fact that she had not clocked in would not prevent this from being a compensable injury due to the Access Doctrine. She was on the Employer’s premises waiting to clock in. She was accessing getting to work.
The only defense that might apply is Sec. 406.032(1)(C) where the injury arose out of an act of a third person intended to injure the employee because of a personal reason and not directed at the employee as an employee or because of the employment. The problem with the case at hand is that the attack was not personal, as they didn’t even know each other. The attack was because of her employment. Had she not been employed by that Employer, the assailant wouldn’t have hurt her.
FOLIO
