In this video, I’m Matt Eason. I’ll address whether you must utilize your PTO or paid time off if you aim to have a workers’ compensation claim.
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I’ve been practicing employment and workers’ compensation law here in Sacramento for over 25 years, and clients regularly ask whether they’ll have to use their PTO if they’ve had an on-the-job injury.
Generally speaking, if you’re off work for three days or less, workers’ compensation temporary disability payments do not apply. So, if you wanted to have income during those first three days off while not working, you might want to utilize your PTO.
However, there are a couple of exceptions in which you do not need to utilize the PTO for the first three days. If you were hospitalized due to your injury, then those first three days are covered by temporary disability, so you do not need to use your PTO. Likewise, if your total time off exceeds fourteen days, the first three days are part of your temporary disability package, and consequently, you do not have to use your PTO. While it is a little bit of a complex matrix as to whether or not those first three days are compensable or not, clearly, after the first three days, if you have suffered an injury on the job, then that would be covered by workers’ compensation, and you would not have to use your paid time off.
Just like there are a few twists and turns about whether or not you have to use your PTO for the first three days, there are a few twists and turns about when you have to start using your PTO again because your temporary disability benefits have run out. Temporary disability benefits typically last 104 cumulative weeks if you’re off work. Then you’re back on, off work, and back on; those add up to 104 weeks off work, in which temporary disability payments apply. After 104 weeks combined time, your temporary disability payments would no longer apply, and thus, if you had hours built up as PTO, you would want to use that PTO.
If you’ve been off work because of a workers’ compensation injury in California for a significant period and you have concerns about PTO being applied correctly or incorrectly, I hope to reach out to one of our Sacramento workers comp attorneys. My name again is Matt Eason. I’m with the law firm of Eason & Tambornini.
