Workers' compensation: supplemental job displacement benefits.

Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system, administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of Workers' Compensation, to compensate an employee for injuries sustained in the course of his or her employment. Existing law, for injuries occurring on or after January 1, 2004, provides supplemental job displacement benefits in the form of a nontransferable voucher for education-related retraining or skill enhancement for an injured employee who does not return to work for the employer within 60 days of the termination of temporary disability, in accordance with a prescribed schedule based on the percentage of an injured employee's disability. Existing law provides an exception for employers who meet specified criteria. Existing law requires the employer, within 10 days of the last payment of temporary disability, to provide to the employee, in the form and manner prescribed by the administrative director, information that provides notice of the employee's right to supplemental job displacement benefits under the above provisions. This bill would provide that if the employee's work restrictions are not yet known within 10 days of the last payment of temporary disability, the employer is not required to send the notice regarding the employee's supplemental job displacement benefits until after the employee's work restrictions are known.