Termination, Responsibility for

Prior to July 1, 1999, the claimant could receive temporary disability benefits even after being terminated from employment due to their own fault, as long as they could show that at least one of the reasons for their inability to work was their industrial injury.  For cases arising after July 1, 1999, however, an injured worker will not receive temporary disability benefits if they are “responsible for their separation from employment”.  Case law interpreting this new statute has indicated that the claimant may not receive temporary benefits if the employee has offered regular or modified duty and the claimant loses their job due to willful misconduct, or job abandonment, inability to satisfy non-medical requirements of the job, or any other reason not related to the physical ability to perform the job.  Generally speaking the act or omission of the employer must be volitional.  (Section 8-42-103(g), 8-42-105(4), C.R.S.).