General Electric Co. v. WCAB (Myers)

In General Electric Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Myers), 578 Pa. 94, 849 A.2d 1166 (2004), the employer sought to modify the claimant's benefits after he refused a light-duty position with a telecommunications company that fit his medical restrictions. Testimony revealed that the position was fully subsidized by employer's insurance carrier, but only for a period of 90 days or less. Although the "new" employer typically continued to employ these subsidized employees, there was no guarantee of employment and the job duties, hours and wages were subject to change. The WCJ concluded that the offered job was "similar to the employer having a short-term light-duty program." Id. at 102, 849 A.2d at 1170. The WCJ granted the modification of claimant's benefits from total to partial, but only for a period of 90 days to reflect that the light-duty job was only temporarily available. The Supreme Court affirmed, rejecting employer's argument that the position was a continuous light-duty position which claimant, like any other employee-at-will, was guaranteed would continue so long as he performed as expected. There was more than sufficient evidence for the WCJ to find that claimant's light-duty job would have either ended or significantly changed at the end of the subsidy period. In reaching its conclusion, the Court reiterated that Kachinski and its progeny require the employer to act in good faith. When an employer refers a claimant to an available job within the claimant's medical restrictions, the referral must "be tailored to the claimant's abilities ... and be made in a good faith attempt to return the injured employee to productive employment, rather than a mere attempt to avoid paying compensation." ... We directed that to meet this burden, an employer needs to "produce medical evidence describing the claimant's capabilities, and vocational evidence classifying the job, e.g., whether it is light work, sedentary work, etc., along with a basic description of the job in question." ... It is then up to a workers' compensation judge to determine whether the claimant can actually perform the job in question. General Electric Co., 578 Pa. at 104, 849 A.2d at 1171-1172.