Illinois ruling ties benefits to acceptance of off-site work offers

Illinois has not historically required injured workers to accept off-site transitional duty positions, but a March decision by the Illinois Workers Compensation Commission that a worker’s benefits could be suspended for rejecting a reasonable off-site transitional duty may change that.

In Stagen v. RelaDyne, a worker who suffered a nondisabling shoulder injury was offered a paid, temporary job at a nonprofit organization in a position that fit within his physician’s light duty restrictions. He refused to accept the position and continued to receive workers compensation benefits. The commission found that the intention of the act is to “compensate a claimant for economic disabilities that diminish his value in the labor market” and that the worker had “no credible justification” for declining to accept the position.

The ruling opened the door for employers in the state to utilize the transitional duty option, said Debra Livingston, CEO of Tampa, Florida-based ReEmployAbility Inc. Her company has been able to maintain a “robust program” in states where judges have ruled in favor of off-site transitional placements, she said.

“As more rulings supporting this type of return-to-work are decided, we expect to continue to grow exponentially,” she said.

However, the Stagen decision isn’t “a catch-all,” and a placement still has to be determined to be within a reasonable distance of the injured worker’s home and within the worker’s functional restrictions, said John Kolecke, partner at Chicago law firm Hennessy & Roach P.C.

The case is currently on appeal in the Cook County Circuit Court.