Injured employee can't do light duty...

aliciac

We had an ee with an on the job injury that has made him unalbe to perform the job he had before. He used to have a very physically demanding job in our warehouse. As part of the light duty requirements we were having him work inside and train on the sales counter with the intent that he'd just move into sales eventually.
He has been inside and training in sales for months. He's not a very intelligent guy and he's not doing well at all. If he was a new hire we would have certainly gotten rid of him by now since he's obviously unable to grasp the job requirements.
His claim is still open, and probably will be for a couple more months. When the claim is closed we won't have anything for this employee to do as that it was recommended by his doctor that he not go back to the manual labor due to the injury. Can we terminate him at that point for performance issues in the sales job?

LarryC

Not cleanly. My next step would be to meet with the employee and tell him he is not performing the job the way it needs to be performed. Ask for his input as to what the next step should be. I assume you have limited possibilities, so at this point I would lay these options out for him. They might include giving him thirty days to correct his performance in his persent job, transfer to another job, or wait until final resolution as to what his permanent restrictions will be. At that time you may or may not be able to accomodate them. Try all your options with him and include his input. Focus on whether he can do the essential job functions of possible job options. If he can't,at this point, you've tried to work with him and you've now run out of possibilities. You are not obligated to a create job for him, so terminate. Now it will most likely go to a hearing where you are now prepared to show you did your due diligence to accomodate his restrictions. This will greatly help in "working down" your final exposure ($).

stilldazed

Push for an MMI rating from the physician. If one is not available, try to get an answer as to why the worker's recovery process seems slow (I'm assuming you may think it is slow). I would try to get a timeline on how long this worker's restrictions are expected to be so restrictive. If the prognosis is for the rest is his life, you may have an MMI rating available, which will move you out of the transitional status and into permanent modification. The question of whether permanent modification is available then becomes whether the modification is reasonable for your company. If it's not reasonable, I'll agree it is risky to cut this worker lose, but your leverage to do so may be stronger. Offer a settlement. He may take it.

How creative is your employer about putting together a modified duty job? If there is no MMI rating and you are still in the transitional stage with this worker's recovery, there may be a combination of odd (minimally physical) jobs he can perform. From one perspective, it may appear that you are setting an undesirable precedent but putting together a very custom modified duty job, but if the circumstances of the injury/recovery are truly unique, the risk of a precedent may be minimal.