A wide range of public employees are covered with disability benefits that are triggered when they’re injured in the course and scope of their employment. These benefits continue on a “leave of absence” basis “in lieu of temporary disability payments” for a period of one year at the employee’s full rate of pay pursuant to section 4850 of the California Labor Code . Just some of the people included under the purview of section 4850 include city police officers and city, county or district firefighters. Certain other public employees are specifically excluded from this coverage.
What is included in Section 4850 Benefits?
The critical advantages of section 4850 benefits over statutory workers’ compensation benefits are that the injured workers received his or her usual salary that he or she would have earned had no injury occurred. The 4850 salary is tax free too. Other usual and customary deductions like health or life insurance are deducted though. Assuming the employee recovers from their injures and returns to work and gets hurt in another accident, another year of section 4850 time could accrue. In any case, in the event that the employee returns to work on a light duty basis, section 4850 benefits will stop.
When Disability Lasts Longer than a Year
If one year has passed since an employee has been receiving section 4850 benefits, those benefits lapse. The injured worker must then bring a workers’ compensation claim. The injured worker can seek temporary total disability benefits at a rate of two-thirds of his or her average weekly wage before the injury. Health and life insurance would need to be paid out-of-pocket, and pension contributions would likely be suspended.
If you got hurt at work during the course and scope of your employment, and you’re being denied section 4850 or workers’ compensation benefits, contact our offices for a consultation with an experienced and dedicated employment law attorney.
Contact our California Labor and Employment Lawyers today.
