A decision recently handed down by the North Carolina Court of Appeals found an employer responsible for paying benefits to an employee who suffered from a serious health condition, in combination with a work-related injury, after she had returned to work doing a modified job.
In workers’ compensation cases, a company may offer an injured employee a temporary position that is specially tailored to accommodate a worker’s restrictions. However, that modified job often will not count as a real job in the long run.
Patricia Church, an employee of Bemis Manufacturing Company, injured her right shoulder while working as a machine operator. Following her doctor’s orders, Church returned to work with the understanding that she was restricted from performing certain tasks. In other words, the job was tailor made just for her, in her condition.
Less than two weeks after returning to work, Church underwent surgery for an aneurism. Bemis Manufacturing argued that it should not have to pay her workers’ compensation benefits following that surgery because they had provided her with a job after her initial injury. The court ruled that the work was not “suitable employment” because the injured worker could not perform all of the tasks that her employer would have required of a non-injured worker. Therefore, Bemis Manufacturing owes Ms. Church workers’ compensation benefits until she is able to return to work.
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Author Bio
Valerie Johnson
Founder
Valerie Johnson is a North Carolina personal injury and workers’ compensation attorney dedicated to helping injured and working people across the state. A board-certified specialist since 2000, she is the Immediate Past President of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice and author of North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law: A Practical Guide to Success at Every Stage of a Claim.
