In the above video, Ty Wilson, a Georgia workers’ comp attorney, addresses whether the employer is required to hold the job for someone injured on the job. The short answer is No w, however there are some programs which can come into place that can help protect you, but it’s not every employer that has to fall under them.
The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA ) is a federal program that can help protect your job. However, every employer does is not under FMLA. There is a threshold of a specific number of employees for for the employer to fall under the FMLA requirements. Recently, that number has been 50 which means if there are less than 50 employees, the employer does not have to offer you FMLA time. In addition, FMLA is not a guarantee of any benefits other than protecting your job for up to twelve weeks.
If you’ve used part of your FMLA, this is twelve weeks over the course of the year. If you’re injured and you’re going to need to be out of work for an extended period of time, FMLA may be something you want to think about in order to keep your job available. But after those twelve weeks, if you fall under the FMLA umbrella, they do not have to keep your job open and can terminate it.
If you do not fall under the FMLA or Family Medical Leave Act umbrella, they do not have to keep your job open for you. They can terminate you. At this point, if you are on light duty or out of work completely the Workers Compensation Insurance company should be issuing you something called income benefits. Income benefits only come into play if you are taken out of work completely or you’re on light duty and your employer cannot accommodate your life duty restrictions and your employer terminates you. At that point, they should be issuing you income benefits, If however, you are full duty, the employer is not required to pay you any income benefits, or the insurance company is not required to pay you any insurance income benefits, and the employer is not required to keep you employed. You could have what is called a medical only where you’re only receiving medical care. And if you’re full duty, that employer can terminate you and it will continue to be a medical only claim.
We understand just how confusing this all can be. That’s why Ty does a case review for your specific situation before taking a case. There may be small points that he can offer to help you get back on track with your claim or you may want to hire him to handle it all.
Contact Ty for more information on handling your case. You can upload your documentation to give him an early start!
