_______________________________________________
HOUSE
BILL 1246
_______________________________________________
AS
AMENDED BY THE SENATE
Passed
Legislature - 1993 Regular Session
State of Washington 53rd
Legislature 1993 Regular Session
By
Read
first time 01/20/93. Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.
Revising provisions for maintaining employee benefits for temporarily
disabled workers.
AN ACT Relating to employee compensation and
benefits during return to work; amending RCW 51.32.090; providing an effective
date; and declaring an emergency.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1.
RCW 51.32.090 and 1988 c 161 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) When the total disability is only
temporary, the schedule of payments contained in RCW 51.32.060 (1) and (2)
shall apply, so long as the total disability continues.
(2) Any compensation payable under this section
for children not in the custody of the injured worker as of the date of injury
shall be payable only to such person as actually is providing the support for
such child or children pursuant to the order of a court of record providing for
support of such child or children.
(3) As soon as recovery is so complete that the
present earning power of the worker, at any kind of work, is restored to that
existing at the time of the occurrence of the injury, the payments shall
cease. If and so long as the present earning power is only partially restored,
the payments shall continue in the proportion which the new earning power shall
bear to the old. No compensation shall be payable unless the loss of earning
power shall exceed five percent.
(4)(a) Whenever ((an)) the
employer of injury requests that a worker who is entitled to temporary
total disability under this chapter be certified by a physician as able to
perform available work other than his or her usual work, the employer shall
furnish to the physician, with a copy to the worker, a statement describing the
((available)) work available with the employer of injury in terms
that will enable the physician to relate the physical activities of the job to
the worker's disability. The physician shall then determine whether the worker
is physically able to perform the work described. ((If)) The
worker's temporary total disability payments shall continue until the
worker is released by his or her physician for ((said)) the work,
and begins the work with the employer of injury. If the work thereafter
comes to an end before the worker's recovery is sufficient in the judgment of
his or her physician to permit him or her to return to his or her usual job, or
to perform other available work offered by the employer of injury, the
worker's temporary total disability payments shall be resumed. Should the
available work described, once undertaken by the worker, impede his or her
recovery to the extent that in the judgment of his or her physician he or she
should not continue to work, the worker's temporary total disability payments
shall be resumed when the worker ceases such work.
(b) Once the worker returns to work
under the terms of this subsection (4), he or she shall not be assigned
by the employer to work other than the available work described without the
worker's written consent, or without prior review and approval by the worker's
physician.
(c) If the worker returns to work under this
subsection (4), any employee health and welfare benefits that the worker was
receiving at the time of injury shall continue or be resumed at the level
provided at the time of injury. Such benefits shall not be continued or
resumed if to do so is inconsistent with the terms of the benefit program, or
with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement currently in force.
(d) In the event of any dispute as to the
worker's ability to perform the available work offered by the employer, the
department shall make the final determination.
(5) No worker shall receive compensation for or
during the day on which injury was received or the three days following the
same, unless his or her disability shall continue for a period of fourteen
consecutive calendar days from date of injury: PROVIDED, That attempts to
return to work in the first fourteen days following the injury shall not serve
to break the continuity of the period of disability if the disability continues
fourteen days after the injury occurs.
(6) Should a worker suffer a temporary total
disability and should his or her employer at the time of the injury continue to
pay him or her the wages which he or she was earning at the time of such
injury, such injured worker shall not receive any payment provided in
subsection (1) of this section during the period his or her employer shall so
pay such wages.
(7) In no event shall the monthly payments
provided in this section exceed one hundred percent of the average monthly wage
in the state as computed under the provisions of RCW 51.08.018.
(8) If the supervisor of industrial insurance
determines that the worker is voluntarily retired and is no longer attached to
the work force, benefits shall not be paid under this section.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.
This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace,
health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public
institutions, and shall take effect July 1, 1993.
