What Happens If You Have a Workers’ Compensation Injury But Can’t Return to Work?

Jan 22 2025

Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda.

Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh. What are we gonna talk about today?

Goodbaum: I want to talk about the intersection between workers’ compensation and various employment laws that allow for leave from work.

So, let’s imagine this hypothetical. Employee gets injured on the job. They can’t work. They apply for workers’ comp. It’s preliminarily approved. They’re temporarily totally disabled. They have no work capacity. They apply for FMLA leave, which provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave. They exhaust that leave, and the employer says, “Hey, can you come back to work?” Employee says, “No, I can’t come back to work yet.” The employer says, “Well, it’s been 12 weeks, so you’re fired.”

What can an employee do they have been injured on the job, they’re going through the workers’ compensation system, they’ve exhausted their FMLA leave, but they’re still not able to return to work the way they were before the injury?

DeMatteis: This is tough stuff, and we see it quite a bit. There are a lot of laws at issue that are triggered, frankly, at various points throughout this hypothetical timeline that you gave us. So, let’s talk about a couple of quick things.

The first: when you’re out on FMLA – that 12 weeks of job-protected leave – make sure if you’re a Connecticut employee that you also, at the same time, apply for CT Paid Leave. You may very well be entitled to some compensation through CT Paid Leave. It doesn’t extend your period of protected medical leave, but it does put some money in your pocket.

Now, if you’re receiving workers’ compensation benefits, there may be an issue. Sometimes, a workers’ comp will be temporarily approved. But if the claim is initially denied, the employee may have no money coming in at all. So, CT Paid Leave would be a good option for them and would keep some money coming in.

If you are receiving workers’ compensation benefits, you might not also be able to receive the CT Paid Leave benefits at the same time. Obviously, talk to a lawyer about that, or just go right on the CT Paid Leave website and apply and see if those benefits get approved. Just be honest about your situation.

So, that’s step one.

Now, what about work? You’ve exhausted this 12 weeks of FMLA leave, and you can’t go back to work. What do you do?

The first thing I would suggest doing is requesting a reasonable accommodation for just a little bit more protected time off. What does that mean? If you’ve been out for 12 weeks, it’s very likely that you’re suffering from a disability under either the Americans with Disabilities Act or Connecticut state law. If that is true and you have a disability under either of those statutes, then you could request a reasonable accommodation. A reasonable accommodation could be so many things that we’ve talked about on these videos before. Maybe you have a bad back and you need an ergonomic chair. Or maybe you need a little bit more time off to be able to get back to work and perform the essential functions of your position. That’s a reasonable accommodation request, too.

You have to do a couple of things to request an accommodation. You’re going to need a medical note that says, “Hey, Josh needs another X period of time off, and he’s gonna be re-evaluated on Y date.” So, you need buy-in from your doctor. You also need to communicate that request directly to your employer and say, “I’m looking for a reasonable accommodation of blank.”

The other thing that’s super important is: What is this amount of time that you’re looking for? You want to keep it as short as you possibly can. Don’t go over 30 days. If you say, “I need another 6 months off,” that’s probably unreasonable. We can’t expect employers to just hold jobs open in this protected status for an indefinite period of time. So, keep the time frame as short as you possibly can to increase the likelihood that your employer will say, “Alright, you know what, this is something that we could work with short term.”

At the same time, find out whether or not your employer has a short-term disability policy. Because if your workers’ comp benefits are not approved, and you’ve exhausted any other benefits, this is gonna be a tough time financially.

The most important thing that I can stress is talk to an employment lawyer. There are wonderful workers’ compensation lawyers in Connecticut and around the country who are so, so good at what they do. But the intersection between our workers’ compensation statutes and all of these employment laws is tricky. You might get fired, and that might trigger a lawsuit under the FMLA. It could trigger a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act, Section 31-290A of our Connecticut Workers’ compensation statutes. You might be saying, “Amanda, my head is spinning. There’s just so much to think about.” And there is.

So, if you’re going through a comp injury and uncertain about how to return to work, you’re not alone. We deal with a lot of Connecticut employees in the same situation. Just make sure, in addition to having great workers’ compensation representation, you talk to an employment lawyer and you do it quickly. Sometimes, we could actually save people’s jobs before they get fired, which is great, but you have to have an opportunity to do that.

Goodbaum: Amanda, that’s all really helpful information for folks who are dealing with an injury at work and are out of work while they’re applying through the workers’ compensation system. But I want to make sure we answer the really fundamental question, which is, “If I’m hurt at work, I cannot go back to work in the 12 week period – maybe I get a short extension for a reasonable accommodation, maybe I don’t – but at the end of that, I still can’t go back to work, can I be fired? I mean, I got hurt at work. How could they just fire me after I got hurt on the job?”

DeMatteis: The easy answer is, yeah, they can fire you, Josh. It’s no different at that point whether or not you were hurt on the job or you’re dealing with a cancer diagnosis that has nothing to do with work. If you exhaust that 12 weeks of protected leave, and you don’t request a further accommodation, your employer no longer has to keep that job open for you, period.

So, a lot of people say, “But wait a minute, this wasn’t my fault. I got hurt at work. I didn’t do anything wrong. How could they fire me?” Unfortunately, the law allows them to do that.

Now, there are exceptions to that. There are ways that we could try to work around that. You could go to your employer and say, “Look, I can’t do X job anymore. Is there something else I can do?” And you can try to have that dialogue with them and be practical and come up with a reasonable solution. Or you can ask for light duty work under Section 31-313A of the Connecticut General Statutes.

But the truth is your employer could say: “No, Josh, I’m sorry. That’s not something we can do. If you can’t return to this job within those 12 weeks, at the conclusion of those 12 weeks, your employment is terminated.” And they can lawfully do that, which is why it is so important to speak with an employment lawyer. Because is there a workaround to that? Is there something else that you could potentially do that could save your job?

The goal isn’t always to have a lawsuit, Josh. You and I both know that. The goal sometimes is: I just want to go back to work. How can I do that? And outside of just having a lawsuit, there might be ways that you could work with an employment lawyer to save your job. And then, unfortunately, sometimes you just can’t.

Goodbaum: I’ll add one more wrinkle to this discussion, Amanda, which is that employees who are hurt on the job need to be sensitive to whether they’re being treated differently than other disabled employees who were not hurt on the job or who were hurt on the job but didn’t hire a lawyer to help them in the workers’ compensation system. Your employer cannot treat you any differently because you hired a lawyer to represent you in the workers’ comp system than they would if you had not done that or if you had been hurt outside of work. You’re protected from workers’ compensation retaliation under Section 31-290A of the Connecticut General Statutes.

So, if your employer has created a light-duty job for somebody who got hurt outside of work playing basketball, but they’re not creating a light-duty job for you when you got hurt on the job, that’s something to talk to an employment lawyer about.

DeMatteis: That’s such great advice, Josh. I’m so happy that you raised that. I hope your head’s not spinning from all of this, but this is just a great example of how facts matter and each person’s situation and their job and what their employer could and could not do really impact what happens here. So, it’s important to talk to somebody and try to work all that out and get to the best solution that works for you and, hopefully, for your employer as well.

Goodbaum: Thank you so much for watching. We’ll see you next time.

Share this Post

josh goodbaum discussing employees that cannot return to work following an injury and their options

About the Author

Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, P.C.

Advocating for Employees
since 1977

Best Lawyers

Let Us Review Your Case

    We will respond to your message promptly. Although we will keep your message strictly confidential, please note that contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.

    Client Experiences

    You will never meet a more knowledgeable and compassionate professional than Steve Fitzgerald. My employment situation was very complex, and Attorney Fitzgerald kept me focused while remaining extremely adept and “thinking on his feet.” Should the need present itself again, I would never seek anyone else’s counsel regarding employment issues. I cannot recommend him highly enough. — J.R., New Haven, CT

    Nina Pirrotti provided outstanding legal advice and was trustworthy, dependable, and responsive. From the start, I was confident that her knowledge and experience would obtain favorable results. On a more personal note, I enjoyed working with her and her staff and felt I was included in every part of the process. The dedication, concern, and interest in me as a client was greatly appreciated, and Nina has earned my highest recommendation. — J.H., Monroe, CT

    Josh Goodbaum truly outperformed my expectations. He was calm and steadfast throughout the entire process. He is a great communicator. Together, we were able to lay out a plan that in the end, not only got myself the outcome I was hoping for, but undoubtedly saved me valuable time and money as well. I cannot thank Josh and his firm enough for coming through for me in this time of uncertainty and stress.  — D.T.

    When I go to a lawyer for advice, I am usually anxious, particularly the first meeting. Amanda DeMatteis was clear in describing my options and immediately set me at ease. Realistic assessment is important, and Amanda was clear as to how to set up the case and the direction she felt we should go. I had total confidence in her abilities and knew I was being well represented against a large corporation. More importantly, we were successful! — N.M., Haddam, CT

    Advocating for Employees since 1977

    American Law Institute Super Lawyers American College of Trial Lawyers Best Lawyers The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
    Back to Top
    (203) 815-1716