Can Teachers Collect Leave Benefits During Summer Break?
The days are now long, morning frost is a thing of the past, and thousands of Maryland’s educators’ are enjoying their summer breaks. What better way to kick off this year’s few months of relaxation (or switching gears for that summer job) than to brush up on your workers’ compensation knowledge?
Workers’ Comp Benefits and Summer Break
This time of year, I always hear from a number of my teacher clients who are wondering how the summer break will affect their workers’ compensation benefits. Generally speaking, under the Workers’ Compensation Act, Maryland workers are entitled to 2/3s of their wages (known legally as temporary total disability or “TTD”) during the recovery period after an injury when they are incapable of working. (Most boards of education offer a 100% wage benefit to their employees for a specified time period. This issue and its implications on workers’ compensation benefits will be discussed in greater detail in a future blog).
Boards of Education however, will often refuse payment of TTD during our educators’ summer vacation – making the argument that the injured teacher is a 10 month employee and would not be paid during the summer months if they had not been injured at work. The law in Maryland, however, makes clear that the having an actual intention to work or the opportunity to work for that matter, is not a requirement to collect TTD. Maryland’s test is loss of earning capacity, or the inability to work, regardless of whether there would be actual wage loss. Maryland’s highest court has held that both retired workers – who may never work again (no intention of working), and incarcerated employees (no opportunity to work), are both entitled to payment of TTD during the period they would be physically unable to perform their job duties.
In short – teachers are entitled to TTD over the summer if they are still recovering from a work injury and can’t physically perform their job duties, regardless of whether or not there are any job duties available to perform.
Pay Plans and Benefit Coverage
Another important factor to consider under these circumstances is whether an individual takes a 10 month pay or chooses to spread out their pay over 12 months. Boards of Education will often argue that if a teacher is compensated on the 12 month plan, they should not be entitled to TTD benefits during summer because they are already being paid and would then be “double dipping”. However, this could not be further from the truth. Even if the pay is spread over 12 months, teachers are still only being paid for 10 months of work and accordingly, are still entitled to summer TTD. Deferring earned income does not preclude TTD benefits during the summer months.
Bring on the heat.
By Ken Berman
