Minnesota: TTD Benefits May Be Terminated Only Where Offer of Employment is Consistent with Rehabilitation Plan

In Minnesota, once a rehabilitation plan is approved, TTD benefits generally may be terminated when a job offer is refused. Where an employee tendered to her employer a notice of resignation that was to become effective at the end of a three-month period and she sustained a work-related injury prior to her departure date, an offer of employment by the employer that would have restored her to the same date-of-injury position, at the same pre-injury wage, with reasonable accommodations for her physical restrictions, was nevertheless inconsistent with the employee’s rehabilitation plan that stated, in relevant part, that her vocational goal was to return to work, but with a different employer. The court indicated the clear language of Minn. Stat. § 176.101, Subd. 1(i) operated to terminate TTD benefits only where the offer of employment was completely consistent with the rehab plan. The employer’s offer could not, under any circumstances, be consistent with that plan.

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 Gilbertson v. Williams Dingmann, LLC, 2017 Minn. LEXIS 254 (May 3, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 95.01.

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