Workers’ Comp: How to Discipline or Terminate Claimants While Minimizing Your Legal Risks

Workers' Comp Webinar Recording

If you've been considering firing an employee who is out on workers' comp leave -- or recently back from it -- don't make a move before considering all the angles. There are times when termination is definitely warranted, just as it would be for any other employee, but workers' comp adds another layer of risk you must manage.

Without careful planning and documentation, you could put your organization into legal danger: ADA: Once cleared to return to work, a workers’ comp claimant may request a light-duty accommodation, which could trigger ADA protections. FMLA: Federal leave law may be protecting the employee's position even as you deal with the misconduct Worker's comp: Job restoration rights under your state’s workers’ comp law add yet another wrinkle.

And don’t forget about possible exceptions to the at-will doctrine. One move and you could find yourself in a heap of legal trouble.

Join us for an in-depth 90-minute interactive webinar that presents the challenges and solutions for disciplining and terminating employees who are out on workers’ comp leave or who have returned to work. You'll learn the latest developments from an experienced workers' comp attorney so you can take the work out of managing workers' comp issues and keep your organization in compliance.

Participate in this interactive and timely webinar and learn:

• When to consider discipline or termination and when to hold off
• Hot-button exceptions under disability discrimination laws
• How to document your actions in a legally defensible way that doesn't invite retaliation claims
• When an injury may constitute a disability under federal law, and the type of light-duty or other accommodations you must provide so an employee can return to work
• An overview of the FMLA, ADA, and workers’ comp leave laws overlap, including how long you must hold open an injured worker’s position and your job-restoration obligations
• Steps you should always take and the documentation to have on hand so your actions don’t spark a viable retaliation claim
• How to tell if adverse action is appropriate when an employee's negligence caused the injury, and if you can refuse accommodation based on the cause of the disability
• What you can legally do once a claimant who reaches maximum medical improvement isn’t able to return to work, with or without medical restrictions, or if he refuses to attend vocational rehabilitation
• How the at-will employment doctrine and the many exceptions created by the courts may affect your right to terminate a workers’ comp claimant
• What impact union contracts have on your discipline and termination game plan
• Employer defenses that have been used successfully in the past, and how to evaluate when they would apply in typical situations

This webinar was recorded on Friday, January 20, 2012

 

Workers’ Comp: How to Discipline or Terminate Claimants While Minimizing Your Legal Risks

About Your Speakers

Attorney David Schmit is the founder of Schmit Law in Oakland, California. Schmit represents employers’ interests in state and federal courts and administrative forums in workers’ compensation matters, including workers’ compensation, civil personal injury law, and wrongful termination cases. He is a frequent lecturer the Industrial Claims Association, the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, and the Insurance Education Association.

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