Get Out of Jail for Free Card; Daylight Savings Time

By John Lowe

The Ohio Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision Wednesday that may serve as a "get out of jail for free card" for Ohio employees who are receiving temporary total disability benefits under Ohio's workers' compensation system and who have exhausted their available leave. Accordingly, you should promptly destroy this email for fear of this information leaking out.

The Case

There is an old adage that bad facts make bad law. It was proven once again in Coolidge v. Riverdale Local School Distr., 100 Ohio St.3d 141 (Oct. 22, 2003). On October 22, 1998, a teacher in the Riverdale School District was assaulted and seriously injured by one of her elementary students. She returned to work the next day, a Friday, but then left early to seek medical attention. She called in sick the following Monday. She thereafter remained off work, and exhausted all available options for leave. Riverdale granted the teacher two 30-day periods of "paid assault leave" pursuant to the terms of a collective bargaining agreement. It denied her request for further extension. She then began to use her accumulated sick leave, and when that ran out, she received unpaid "restoration of health" leave, which could be granted "for a period not to exceed one (1) school year."

Almost two years after the incident, she was terminated when the school board determined that she had exhausted all available leave, had been absent without leave, had failed to perform the duties of her contract and, as a result, "other good and just cause" existed for the termination of her employment.

The Ohio Supreme Court saw the issue as whether "public policy embodied in the Workers' Compensation Act protects an employee who is receiving TTD [temporary total disability] compensation from being discharged solely because of the disabling effects of the allowed injury, that is, absenteeism and inability to work." The Court unanimously answered affirmatively, holding that:

An employee who is receiving TTD compensation pursuant to R.C. 4123.56 may not be discharged solely on the basis of absenteeism or inability to work, when the absence or inability to work is directly related to an allowed condition.

What It Means

On its face, this ruling seems to require something akin to "indefinite leave" for certain employees. Ohio employers may want to consider amending their policies to allow extended leave for employees who (1) have exhausted all other leave available to them; (2) are currently receiving TTD; and, (3) as a direct result of the allowed condition giving rise to the TTD, they cannot currently return to work.

Even if you choose not to amend your policies, you must keep this case in mind before disciplining an employee who claims that an absence relates to an allowed condition.

And One Last Reminder

This weekend we set the clocks back an hour. So why are your friendly employment lawyers at Kegler Brown reminding you of that fact?

If you have third shift employees working over the weekend, they may work an extra hour this week. Which, if their normal schedule is 40 hours per week, likely means they will be entitled to an hour of overtime at one and a half times their regular rate of pay.

Everything relates to employment law.