Can Concentra Make Me Quit My Job?
Q. I hurt my back on the job and now have permanent restrictions from my doctor. GM says they have no job available that I can do, so I have been off on weekly workers’ compensation benefits for the past several months. I was recently contacted by a “vocational rehabilitation firm” called Concentra, which GM hired, that is telling me that I have to look for a new job–and if I don’t, my workers’ comp benefits will terminate. Can GM do this?
A. Under the Michigan Workers’ Disability Compensation Act, if an injured employee is unable to work within their qualifications and training at their previous earning capacity, that worker is entitled to weekly workers’ compensation wage loss benefits. Vocational rehabilitation is considered another statutory benefit in the Act, that an employee, or an employer, may wish to pursue when an employee is injured on the job. The Workers’ Compensation Agency is empowered to order an employer or the employer’s insurance carrier to pay for up to two years of vocational rehabilitation, training and services. The Michigan courts have stated that purpose of vocational rehabilitation is to restore an injured worker to a remunerative occupation; many injured workers who have been unable to return to their former work have been able to get their tuition and books paid so that they are able to embark on a new money-making career.
Unfortunately, many employers and their insurance companies attempt to utilize a very different sort of vocational rehabilitation. Many injured workers in Michigan now get contacted by a voc rehab firm hired by their employer. Such firms frequently tell the disabled that they must start applying for work immediately. They tell workers that they must apply for 10 to 20 jobs a week or else. Workers are frequently given lists of lousy paying jobs that the voc rehab firm found in the classified ads or on the Internet. (One of my clients was recently told by Concentra that she was required to apply for jobs at the Velvet Touch and Priscilla’s sex shop!) Sometimes the voc rehab firm makes the disabled apply for jobs without any consideration for the employee’s restrictions. Some voc rehab firms tell the disabled to lie about their physical condition during job interviews. Many voc rehab firms tell the disabled that they must sign a contract as to how voc rehab will be conducted. Many such voc rehab firms tell workers that going back to school is not an option. And finally, many voc rehab firms advise the disabled that they must follow the voc rehab firm’s rules or their workers’ comp benefits will terminate.
Vocational rehabilitation was not intended by the Michigan Legislature to be a device used to harass injured workers. While it is true that the Director of the Workers’ Compensation Agency has the power to reduce or terminate benefits for refusing to participate in reasonable vocational rehabilitation, nothing in the Act requires an employee to lie about their disabilities, apply for a certain number of jobs a week, apply for lousy lower paying work (or to stand on a street corner selling pencils) in order to reduce the employer’s workers’ compensation costs.
The Blanchard–and Engler--administration published certain directives as to how voc rehab was to be conducted. A voc rehab firm is, first of all, supposed to make a genuine effort at returning the disabled worker to a job with the original employer. If that fails, efforts to place the worker with a new employer can be made. If after 60 to 90 days, the employee has been unable to find work that restores the worker to a remunerative occupation, the voc rehab firm is supposed to instead give consideration to getting the employee additional schooling or training. Because the purpose of vocational rehabilitation is to restore a worker to a remunerative occupation–and there is nothing in the statute or case law to the contrary–it seems reasonable for an injured worker to focus their search on jobs comparable in pay to what the worker previously made. (By contrast, under a different section of the Workers’ Compensation Act, if an injured employee receives an actual job offer, within the employee’s physical capacity and reasonably close to the employee’s residence, regardless of the job’s pay, the employee is required to accept the offer (unless he or she has good and reasonable cause to refuse it.)
While every injured worker has an obligation to cooperate with reasonable vocational rehabilitation, for some workers, all forms of vocational rehabilitation may be unreasonable. Several years ago, when GM started using Concentra in this area, GM and Concentra told workers’ compensation claimants who were senior citizens, who were on disability pensions, and who were on Social Security Disability, that they had to participate in voc rehab and apply for lousy paying jobs. Our law firm brought a motion before the Director of the Bureau seeking to revoke General Motors’ privilege to run their own workers’ comp program rather than purchase workers’ comp insurance, because of the way GM and Concentra were conducting voc rehab. Shortly thereafter, GM ceased their effort to voc rehab the elderly and those determined to be totally disabled.
If you are contacted by a voc rehab firm, an injured worker should not simply ignore the rehab firm's calls or letters. An injured worker receiving weekly benefits has an obligation to cooperate with reasonable vocational rehabilitation. A worker however is entitled to have some say in how voc rehab is conducted. An injured worker who is unsatisfied with the way the employer wants voc rehab to be conducted can petition the Workers’ Compensation Agency to have a different form of voc rehab plan implemented or to have a voc rehab provider of the employee’s choosing appointed. If you are being asked to participate in vocational rehabilitation, feel free to give our office a call for individualized advice regarding your own situation.
>>Back to Workers' Rights Column
