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PENNSYLVANIA FEDERATION OF INJURED WORKERS Call us toll free 1-888-376-7942
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September 26, 2002
Why a Time Limit on Worker's Compensation? Expressed opinion by Michael A. Kerstetter, PFIW Dauphin County Most of the litigation in the Pennsylvania Worker's Compensation System is due to a time limit put on a worker's compensation claim. When a worker is injured on the job and can not return to the workers original job a disability rating of full disability is assigned to the injured worker. Since the injured worker can not return back to work he/she becomes an expense to the employer/worker's compensation insurance company and there is no return on that expense. Employers with the help and the guidance of the worker's compensation insurance company at this point in a claim start litigation to have the injured worker assigned a partial disability rating. No expense is spared to get this rating because with it comes a time limit on the injured workers claim. The Pennsylvania Legislature has reformed the worker's compensation act twice shortening the length of time an injured worker can receive benefits once assigned a partial disability rating. The first reform with a time limit on a claim was done to the worker's compensation act and created act 44 which was sponsored by the Democrats and the most recent reform shortening the time limit even further created act 57 which was perpetrated by the Republicans. As a result of this reform here is what the worker's compensation act now says about an injured worker who is only partially disabled: Section 306(b) (1) For disability partial in character caused by the compensable injury or disease (except the particular cases mentioned in clause (c)) sixty-six and two-thirds per centum of the difference between the wages of the injured employee, as defined in section 309, and the earning power of the employee thereafter; but such compensation shall not be more than the maximum compensation payable. This compensation shall be paid during the period of such partial disability except as provided in clause (e) of this section, but for not more than five hundred weeks. Should total disability be followed by partial disability, the period of five hundred weeks shall not be reduced by the number of weeks during which compensation was paid for total disability. The term "earning power," as used in this section, shall in no case be less than the weekly amount which the employee receives after the injury; and in no instance shall an employee receiving compensation under this section receive more in compensation and wages combined than the current wages of a fellow employee in employment similar to that in which the injured employee was engaged at the time of the injury. I have only one question for the Pennsylvania Legislature. Why is there a time limit for partial disability? The injured worker does not have a miracle cure at the end of the time limit. This partial disability will be with the injured worker for the rest of their life, so why limit the help received from an employer/worker's compensation insurance company? The only answer is the Pennsylvania Legislature wanted to give the worker's compensation insurance company relief from it's obligation to pay the injured worker for the partial disability. How does this help an injured worker? This is unfair to the injured worker. Since the injured worker can not support himself/herself completely when the subsidy from the employer/worker's compensation insurance company runs out many of them turn to Social Security Disability. What the Pennsylvania Legislature has done is shifted the cost of a partially disabled worker from worker's compensation to the Social Security System. This should outrage all Americans because of the shape the Social Security System is in today. Social Security does not need another burden on it just to allow worker's compensation insurance companies to make more profit. Again the Pennsylvania State Government gives in to corporate greed pressure at the expense of the working man/woman. The Pennsylvania Federation of Injured Workers has brought this up on several occasions at the Pennsylvania Worker's Compensation Advisory Council meeting. No action has been taken on this issue by the council. All of the Pennsylvania Legislators were asked about this issue and they all have turned a cold shoulder to the Pennsylvania Federation of Injured Workers. The best solution to this problem is to remove the time limit put on a partial disability claim. Make the employers/worker's compensation insurance companies pay the benefits out they are responsible for paying. Stop penalizing the injured worker with the time limit and stop rewarding the worker's compensation insurance companies at the expense of injured workers. The worker's compensation insurance companies were paid a premium to pay claims. To limit the length of time they are paid is unethical!
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