Workers comp issues

[manahmanah]

I was injured in the line of duty arresting a combative suspect. I hurt my wrist pretty bad and was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment. It was later found to be a bad sprain. I missed the next two days of work.

The city finance director is telling me I have to use my PERSONAL sick days in order to get paid for the two days I missed and states that I must wait for workers comp to pay the city before he'll give me my PERSONAL sick days back. They are not arguing that I sustained a legitimate injury on duty. I have been injured before at a previous department and did not have to go through this, nor did I have to use my own PERSONAL sick days to get paid, I just got paid as normal.

Also, isn't my pay supposed to be tax free when it is a workers comp issue? How will I be compensated for that if they're making me use my sick time. I thought that the workers comp laws were a little different for cops and firefighters. Is this legal for them to do, making me use my PERSONAL sick days?

[retdetsgt]

Ah, another advantage of a union.....

Your disability pay isn't supposed to be taxed. You might contact the state WC board or labor relations board. There has to be a state agency that can handle that for you. You're in California, right? There should be someone to help you.

[manahmanah]

Afirm. This ******* has done slippery **** before to an officer that was injured so bad he had to be medically retired. He did not do what was right until me (as the POA president) our interim chief at the time stepped in AND the officer went to the news media and they blasted it all over the 3 major news channels. I am talking to a workmans comp attorney sometime today, we'll see what he says.

[retdetsgt]

Before you put out of pocket money into this, isn't there a state labor relations board or someone you can call first? A guy I knew from a small dept. here called Oregon's and they lit a fire under a chief who thought he was God and was screwing over people like that.

The other part of the equation is, you're only looking at taxes for two days work. Don't spend more than you would have lost trying to recover it.

[L-1]

From your location (North Mexico) I am going to assume you are in California. In California, the law allows a workers comp carrier 90 days within which to accept or reject your claim. (Usually they do it a lot quicker than that.) If you want your wages to continue during that period, you must burn personal leave credits, which are then reinstated once your claim is accepted.

Initially your wages will be shown as taxable when using your own leave credits. However, once 4800 time kicks in and your leave credits are restored, you will be issued amended check stubs reflecting that all that time was tax free.

Many larger agencies are self insured when it comes to workers comp and have their own in house adjusters. This ensures claims are processed immediately, so you never see anything taken out of your leave credits. However, many smaller agencies contract with an outside insurance carrier like State Compensation Insurance Fund, which may take a few weeks to process things. When that happens, you will be burning leave credits to temporarily tide you over until things get sorted out.

If, for some reason you claim is rejected, you will use personal leave credits until the matter is resolved by the Workers Compensation Appeals Board.

[Samuel]

IMO, the two days personal sick isn't that big a deal. What would concern me more is making sure that your injury is correctly diagnosed and treated. I would recommend getting a second opinion from your personal doctor or a specialist of your choice (you may have to wait 30 days to be able to do that) and making sure you MRI the injury after swelling (if any) has gone down (not sure how long ago your injury was). Don't let them pressure you to return to work or return to full duty until you are ready. We're all just numbers to them...