Report of Injury

The College carries workers’ compensation insurance to reimburse medical expenses and to continue wages in the event of illness or injury incurred in the course of employment. If an employee is injured at work, they must immediately notify their supervisor(s). Within 24 hours, the employee and supervisor are expected to fill out the Employee Accident Report form and forward the form to Human Resources.

A student worker who has a work-related accident must fill out the Student Employee Illness/Injury Report. The law requires that the First Report of Injury be filed for medical or less time claims with the insurance carrier. Human Resources will process and file the First Report of Injury. 

Workers’ Compensation Pay

Carleton has the philosophy that it is best for the employee to return to work as soon as possible after a work-related injury. The college will make every effort to work with restrictions that are assigned by the physician. At times it is necessary for an employee to be off of work during the healing process, and Carleton will abide by the Workers’ Comp regulations regarding the payment of wages.

The State of Minnesota has a three-day period in which the employee does not receive income through Workers’ Compensation. For these first three days following an injury, an employee will use their accrued sick, vacation or floating holidays. If an employee is unable to return to work after three days, the Workers’ Compensation agent will issue a check to the employee for all authorized continued loss time.

Time off needed for doctor appointments and therapy appointments should be made outside of the employee’s work schedule, if at all possible. If this isn’t possible, then absent accruals need to be used (sick, vacation, then floating holiday hours). FMLA leave will apply, if applicable, to loss time due to workers’ compensation. With an approved medical leave, college contributions to benefits will continue to be in effect for up to a six month period while an employee is losing time due to a Workers’ Compensation injury.

Workers’ Compensation Fraud

Fraud is when a person deliberately misrepresents or fails to disclose information about an important fact to receive benefits to which he or she is not entitled. Carleton College has zero tolerance for fraud and will actively pursue an offender.

Employee Responsibilities

During a loss time claim, the employee will be responsible for:

  1. Forwarding to HR the physician’s “release from work” and “return to work” slips.
  2. Documenting Workers’ Compensation Loss Time on Electronic Timesheet
    • Enter the hours you did work on the Time Entry page
    • Notify Human Resources and the Workers’ Comp Adjuster of any loss time so that they can process eligible loss time.
  3. Faxing a copy of their pay stub, involving part of the pay period worked and part of the pay period not worked, to the Workers’ Comp adjuster (cc: Karyn Jeffrey in the HR department).
    • If payroll premium deductions are missed, the employee will need to contact HR. The employee will have a choice of either paying their missed benefit premiums by personal check each pay period to HR or waiting to have the balance due deducted from their next payroll check from Carleton College.