Minnesota: Part-Time Work by Injured Employee Does Not Automatically Result in Termination of Rehab Benefits

A compensation judge’s determination that a claimant was no longer a "qualified employee” entitled to receive rehabilitation benefits under Minnesota Rule 5220.0100, subps. 22 and 34 (2015), in light of her part-time job with a new employer was erroneous, held the Supreme Court of Minnesota. The Court accordingly affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals (WCCA) that required the original employer, under the facts of the case, to show “good cause” before terminating rehabilitation benefits. The Court stressed that Minnesota Statutes § 176.102, subd. 6(a) (2016), which addresses an employee's initial eligibility for rehabilitation services, does not provide an independent mechanism for an employer to terminate rehabilitation benefits. Nor does Minnesota Rule 5220.0100, subps. 22 and 34 (2015) allow an employer to terminate an employee's rehabilitation benefits. Plan modification or termination may be accomplished only by meeting the requirements of Minn. Stat. § 176.102, subd. 8(a).

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Halvorson v. B & F Fastener Supply, 2017 Minn. LEXIS 588 (Sept. 20, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 95.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law