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Recently, the Ohio Supreme Court expanded the employer friendly doctrine of “voluntary abandoment” in workers’ compensation claims. Generally, when an employee is injured in the course and scope of his employment, under the Ohio workers’ compensation statutes, he is entitled to compensation for medical expenses and lost time incurred as a result of the injury. If an employee is injured to the extent he cannot work for a period of time after the accident, the employee is entitled to temporary total disability benefits, or lost wages, for the time missed from work. Likewise, if an employee returns to work, but at a later date is rendered medically unable to work again due to the industrial injury, he may be entitled to temporary total benefits for wages lost during this latter period of time.
During the 1990's, Ohio courts adopted the doctrine of voluntary abandonment, which cuts off an employee’s right to temporary total benefits if the employee is terminated after the industrial injury for violating a written work policy, of which the employee was previously made aware. The doctrine does not apply to an employee’s termination for absenteeism or other violations due to the industrial injury. |
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Voluntary abandonment does not bar the employee from receiving compensation for his medical expenses or other compensation under the workers’ compensation statutes, but simply cuts off the employee’s right to receive temporary total benefits.
Recently, however, the Ohio Supreme Court applied the doctrine of voluntary abandonment to bar an employee’s right to temporary total disability benefits where the industrial injury was the result of the employee’s violation of an industrial injury.
In State ex rel. Gross v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, the claimant was a 16 year old Kentucky Fried Chicken (“KFC”) employee who was injured after putting water into the deep fryer. KFC had a strict written policy forbidding employees from putting water into the deep fryers. Further, the employee had been warned on numerous occasions that he should not clean the deep fryer with water. The employee was injured when he poured water into the fryer and the water reacted with the grease already present in the fryer. MORE
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