Page 1
Penalties Received by Injured Public Employees Are Limited to What Other Workers Would Receive
50% Penalty T Imposed Where Injury Stemmed From Employer’s ‘Serious and Willful Misconduct’ Cannot Be Based on Boosted Benefits Received Under Government Code, Justices Hold
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The California Supreme Court held yesterday that a 50% hike in workers’ compensation benefits that applies where an employee is incapacitated due to a workplace injury caused by an employer’s “serious and willful misconduct” is to be calculated based on the amount a worker is normally entitled to take home under the Labor Code, and not, in the case of certain public employees, based on high sums received by them under a separate statutory scheme.
At issue is Labor Code §4553 which provides:
“The amount of compensation otherwise recoverable shall be increased one-half, together with costs and expenses not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars ($250), where the employee is injured by reason of the serious and willful misconduct of any of the following: [¶] (a) The employer, or his managing representative.”
“Compensation” is defined in Labor Code §3207 as “compensation under” the Workers’ Compensation Act,” which is contained in that code.
Some public employees receive industrial disability leave and enhanced industrial disability leave benefits which are higher than the amounts of temporary disability payments generally garnered by workers. Those public employees, Justice Leondra Kruger said in an opinion for a unanimous court, are to receive 50% increases based on what they would be paid if they were receiving temporary disability benefits.
Industrial disability leave benefits, she explained, “are not compensation ‘under’ the workers’ compensation law; they are, instead, benefits created and conferred under the Government Code.”
The decision affirms a judgment by Div. Two of the Fourth District Court of Appeal. That court determined, in a 2023 opinion by Justice Michael J. Raphael, that Michael Ayala, a correctional officer for California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, while entitled to a 50% increase, is limited to a sum that would be received under the Labor Code.
The case is Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation v. WCAB, 2025 S.O.S. 408.
Copyright 2025, Metropolitan News Company