Does not being able to get to work determine lost or restricted days?

Scenario:  An employee is injured at work and work relationship is established for recordkeeping purposes. The employee is now not able to drive himself to work. The employee may have a cast or splint on, arm in a sling, using crutches, or leg immobilized, etc. The employer has work the employee could do if the employee could get to work. The employee stated he was not able to drive. Prior to the injury, the employee drove himself to work every day. He was not in a car pool, or didn’t catch a ride with co-workers, etc.

Questions: Would this case be a days away from work case or a restricted work activity case?
If the employer provided transportation (even though not required by the regulation to do so), could the company count the days as restricted or must they still count the days as days away from work?
 Would the answer be the same if the employee’s doctor wrote a restriction of “no driving” but the company says “the employee can get a ride with someone else, we have work available”?

Answer: The case must be recorded in a manner reflecting what actually occurs. If the employee does not make it to work, the case must be recorded as a case involving days away from work. If the employee is driven to work by the employer, or anyone else, and the employee performs restricted work, the case must be recorded as a case involving restricted work activity.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 27th, 2010 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Recordkeeping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.